Senator Rochas Okorocha has called for the reduction of cost of running the Nigerian Parliament, saying a parliamentarian is enough to represent a state as government can no longer afford the outrageous cost of maintaining Lawmakers.
The Senator who is a former Governor of Imo State and also representing Imo West Senatorial district made this call while contributing to a committee report on MTEF at the senate plenary on Thursday.
Okorocha faulted the status co of the bicameral legislature arguing that there is nothing too important that the two Houses are doing that a senate House alone cannot handle.
Saddened by the deficit of the 2019 budget which was indicated by the committee report on Budget and National planning, the former governor admitted that the government is spending too much fund on the Lawmakers.
In his statement, “Mr. President of the Senate, distinguished colleagues, let’s tell ourselves the truth. Look at the number of House of Representatives members and Senators. ”
“To me, what is too important that a House member is doing that a Senator from the same state is not doing?”
“It is time for us to sacrifice and I want to say that a Senator is enough to represent a State in order to cut cost. We must do sacrifice for the nation. ”
Okorocha posited that the government should channel its energy on spending more money on production that will fetch revenue for good governance and development of infrastructure rather than wasting it on individuals just to spend.
However, in his reaction Ahmed Lawan, the President of the Senate said the constitution has provided for the bi-cameral legislature and there nothing they can do, meanwhile, he urged Okorocha to sponsor a bill in that regard if he wants to actually correct the anomaly.
Lawan explained that the reason for the existence of the houses was to give room for proper brainstorming on national issues.
