House of Rep Rejects Part-Time Legislature Proposal

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The federal House of Representatives on Tuesday rejected the proposal that members of the National Assembly should perform their legislative duties on a part-time basis.
It argued that while the cost of governance may be high in Nigeria, it would be wrong to portray the legislature as a burden to the economy. (Who is fooling who?)

Some Lawmakers who spoke on the issue were unanimous in their argument that Nigeria needed to adopt a holistic approach to tackling the challenge of huge cost of governance.

Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Zakary Mohammed, while reacting to the proposal yesterday, faulted claims by Oby Ezekwesili that the National Assembly had gulped over N1 trillion in about eight years to the detriment of the nation’s economic development, describing them as misleading.

Mohammed said it was a “blanket statement” that did not take into account the fact that the National Assembly had maintained a budgetary allocation of N150 billion for both capital and recurrent expenditures over the last three fiscal years.

Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Afamefuna Ogene, also rejected a part-time legislature for Nigeria, adding that this was not the first time, people would “erroneously” suggest that the National Assembly is the problem of the country.

Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, took a rather sarcastic approach to the matter, saying he would support the proposal if part-time legislation was the solution to Nigeria's economic problems.

“If part-time legislation is the panacea, antidote or solution to our myriad of problems in this country, I am all for it. But something tells me it is not. I am yet to see an advanced democracy or economy especially with a size and the multiplicity of regions and religions that operate such a system.

“Nigeria's problem needs a holistic approach and major surgery. But like I said, I am all for part-time legislation if it will move us forward even if by experiment though I think after 100 years of existence and 50 years of independence, we should have gone beyond experimentation,” Gbajabiamila said.

My people shouldn’t we adopt another approach if what we have since 50 years isn't working???