Amid several crises in the education and health sectors, security and infrastructure, analysts are of the view that Nigeria cannot make any significant progress unless the government cuts down on the cost of governance in the country,At all levels of government, the high cost of governance has been a major source of concern as this is said to hamper genuine development of the country.
With a new government just coming on board, the question agitating the minds of many Nigerians is whether the situation would continue in the next four years.
He said, “They clearly earn more than their counterparts in the UK, USA, Germany and many other civilised countries with far greater GDP and stable polity. But the only reason this has continued is simply because there seems to be a conspiracy between the executive and legislature against the masses.”
Ozekhome, who noted that the salary and allowances of a senator were higher than the take-home of a professor, recommended a reform that should include the adoption of a unicameral legislature or making the legislative duty a part-time job. The Media Associate, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education, Armsfree Ajanaku, shared Ozekhome’s view on unicameral legislature.
She stated, “There should be a third party monitoring mechanism to check the usage of public funds in their care. Sustaining the National Assembly is too expensive for the country. The legislators should show cause for all expenditure; there is a need for more transparency and accountability. Constituencies should be ready to recall anyone who does not live up to expectation.”
Armed with this fact, over 1,500 concerned Nigerians have filed a lawsuit asking a Federal High Court in Lagos to “restrain, prevent and stop the National Assembly Service Commission from paying members of the 9th National Assembly individually and/or collectively over N4.68bn as ‘welcome package’.”