Nigeria’s Senate President Ahmad Lawan has asked citizens to focus and engage more on debates of what the National Assembly means to Nigeria and what the functions of the members of the legislature should be rather than talk about jumbo pay.
Lawan warned that there could be anarchy if the National Assembly is scrapped as being clamoured by some Nigerians.
The Senate President, however, challenged Nigerians who are uncomfortable with the current lawmakers in the 9th Senate to vote them out in 2023 “if they don’t like current members of the National Assembly.”
“If you don’t like the set of members in the 9th National Assembly, change all of us in 2023, get better people, but help support the system to function, because that is your protection,” Lawan said at a retreat for top management staff of the National Assembly and National Assembly Service Commission.
He described the Senate as a leveler that ensures all parts of the country are equally represented unlike the House of Representatives where states with higher populations produce the highest number of lawmakers.
“The Senate is a leveler because, in the House of Representatives, population is a major consideration and that’s why some states will have five, six members in the House and others will have twenty.
“So if you say close the senate, be sure that there will be a day people will cry foul of the tyranny of the majority. But when you come to the senate what Kano state produces in the senate is what Bayelsa produces, three senators in Kano and you have three Senators in Bayelsa, which gives everyone the advantage and the opportunity to be represented fully and equally, and that stabilizes the system,” Lawan said.
By Abel Ejikeme