Ibrahim Shekarau, the senator for Kano Central, lamented Nigeria’s high cost of administration on Wednesday, urging President Bola Tinubu to reduce the number of federal parliamentarians.
However, the former governor of Kano State voiced doubt about President Bola Tinubu’s ability to carry out this plan, stating, “I wonder if he’ll have the courage to do all the constitutional amendments and go through the process, and reduce all of this.”
Shekarau added that fewer parastatals would result in fewer oversight responsibilities, which would lighten the load on the central.
He claims that the Federal Government is creating “so many” agencies and parastatals and spending “so much” money at the centre.
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“Left to me, we don’t need to have the two chambers, the two houses,” he said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“It’s costing the country. I agree, a democracy means getting as many involved as possible, but the way it is going on now, it’s almost 500 legislators nationwide; I don’t think we really need this much at the moment.”
“Then you’ll discover that the legislative arm will also have to be [downsized] because if there isn’t much to do at the centre, you don’t need all of this sea of hundreds of people really to do oversight assignments,” he said.
“I have been subscribing to the idea of devolution of powers. The Federal Government should really cut its own costs by devolving a lot of these responsibilities down the line, to the states and to the local governments.”
“Unfortunately, we’ve not had leadership that has the courage. There was the Oronsaye report during Jonathan’s time, which has yet to be implemented,” he added
“[Former President Goodluck] Jonathan did not implement it; [former President Muhammadu] Buhari did not implement it.
“The moment you create a parastatal, you’re already talking of board members, chief executive, directors, departments, and the overhead cost of running all these agencies add quite a lot to the expenses of running the government.”
