The renewed advocacy by former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, to the effect that membership of the National Assembly should be on part-time basis has reopened the debate on the propriety or otherwise of having a full-time legislature, especially the way it is run in the country and given the current economic reality.
“In 1989, we proposed that the membership of the National Assembly should be on a part-time basis. If I have the opportunity to change the cause of events in this country as a President, I still believe in that very strongly; all in an effort to cut the cost of governance. I thank you for reminding me about the issue I have not talked about. It has been on the need for a part-time basis for the legislature; it has skipped my memories for some time,” he stated.
Babangida, who made the remark during an interaction with newsmen to mark his 75th birthday in Minna, Niger state, last week, said that it was one of the novel concepts he had planned to introduce during his eight-year rule.
He agreed with some Nigerians on the need to know the cost of governance, as the nation was believed to spend about a fifth of the federal budget in maintaining both the Senate and the House of Representatives. While the Senate comprises 109 members, there are 390 members in the House.
The former leader said he strongly believed in the introduction of part-time legislature to mitigate the cost of running governance in the country.
Babangida’s regime had operated a diarchy, with elected state governors operating with the full complement of state houses of assembly, while the National Assembly was gagged through the provision of no-go areas at the federal level.
He said the proposal for a part-time legislature was one of the major issues he had not talked about since he left office about 24 years ago.
The former leader stepped aside as military president, following the crisis precipitated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, regarded as the freest in the annals of the country. The presumed winner of the poll, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, later died about five years after under incarceration by the regime of late head of state, General Sani Abacha.
Blueprint opines that Babangida’s advocacy on part-time legislature could not have come at a better time than now in view of the fact that the nation’s economy is in its worst recession in several decades occasioned chiefly by the dwindling crude oil revenue.
Following the lean finances at government’s disposal, it would be tantamount to committing suicide for Nigeria to maintain a money guzzling legislature. In fact, Nigerian lawmakers at both chambers are said to be the highest paid legislators in the world, a situation the renowned law scholar, Professor Itse Sagay, once described as a cruel anomaly and a breach of trust.
Similarly, the then Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi (now Emir of Kano), had decried the disproportionate amount of money gulped by the National Assembly vis-a-vis the federal budget, which he put at 25 per cent.
Professor Sagay put the average salary and allowances per annum of a senator at N240 million and about N204 million for a member of the House of Representatives.
This humongous amount of money, which is also reflective of the 36 states houses of assembly, could be deployed to other critical sectors of the economy rather than waste it on legislators who sit for only three days in a week, much of which is spent on bickering and self-aggrandisement.
We are, however, not oblivious of the important role of the legislature, which is one of the three arms in a democratic government; the other two being the executive and the judiciary. As a matter of fact, they are to make laws for the good governance of the country and, importantly, they serve as the crucial check and oversight on executive and judiciary.
Notwithstanding this vital role, we believe that the legislators can perform their constitutional functions without necessarily being on full-time basis. Part-time parliament is germane to our current economic reality. Lawmakers should only sit when there is a document to debate.
We, therefore, advise the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to revisit the recommendation of the National Conference for a bicameral system where the President would also be a member of the legislature. It also recommended that the legislature should be part-time. Part-time legislature would ensure that only people in some profession, calling or trade, who could honestly subsist, can become legislators.
