Shekarau asserts that the Senate and Reps are redundant in terms of the cost of government

There are 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members in the National Assembly.

Sen. Ibrahim Shekarau, who represents Kano Central, criticized Nigeria’s high cost of governance on Wednesday and advised President Bola Tinubu to reduce the number of federal legislators.

“If it were up to me, we wouldn’t need the two chambers, the two houses,” he stated during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

“It’s a drain on the economy. I concur that a democracy necessitates the participation of as many people as possible; however, there are almost 500 legislators in the United States at the present, and I don’t think we need that many.

109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members compose the National Assembly.

Regarding Tinubu’s political will, Shekarau expressed skepticism, stating, “I wonder if he’ll have the courage to do all the constitutional amendments, go through the process, and reduce all of this.”

In addition, the former governor of Kano State argued that reducing the number of parastatals would reduce the number of supervision responsibilities, thereby easing the burden on the government’s central administration.

“Then you’ll discover that the legislative branch will also have to be [reduced],” he said, “because if there isn’t much to do at the center, you don’t need a sea of hundreds of people to perform oversight tasks.”

“I’ve been a supporter of the concept of authority devolution. The federal government should reduce its own expenditures by transferring many of these responsibilities to the states and local governments.

According to him, the central government spends “so much” money and creates too many agencies and parastatals.

“Unfortunately, we’ve never had leadership with fortitude. During Jonathan’s administration, the Oronsaye report was drafted, but it has not yet been implemented,” he added.

“Neither [former President Goodluck] Jonathan nor [former President Muhammadu] Buhari implemented it.

“As soon as you create a parastatal, you’re talking about board members, the chief executive, directors, and departments, and the overhead cost of running all these agencies significantly increases the cost of operating the government.”