The Ekiti state governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has suggested that Nigeria can scrap the senate and arguing that all the country really needs is a unicameral legislature.
Contributing at the just concluded 25th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group conference, the governor said Nigeria has to look into the size of government.
He said: “We do need to look at the size of government in Nigeria and I am an advocate of a unicameral legislature. What we really need is the house of representatives because that is what represents,” he said at a session monitored by TheCable.
“You have three senators from little Ekiti and you have three senators from Lagos state. It’s a no-brainer that it’s unequal, I guess the principle is not proportionality but that if you are a state, you get it automatically but I think that we can do away with that. There are several things that we can do away within the government.
“The Oronsaye report that proposed mergers of several MDAs that are doing the same thing is something that the government should pay serious attention to and reduce the resources being expended on them.”
Nigeria’s national assembly consists of a senate with 109 members and a 360-member house of representatives.
But what about the number of states? Is Fayemi saying 36 states not too many for geographical Nigeria? Why did he not suggest reducing the number of states too?