The Senator representing Abia North Senatorial Zone, Orji Uzor Kalu, has proposed a constitutional amendment to make the Senators, House of Representative Members and House of Assembly Members sit on a part-time basis in the face of serious economic challenges facing Nigeria.
Senator Kalu who spoke to News Central TV said it won’t be a bad idea if the lawmakers at various levels sit four times in a year except there’s an emergency.
“I think it will be a very good idea if my colleagues and other members of the Houses of Assembly will agree that we can sit for three months and do constitutional amendments first and from 2027, sit for three months and in the three months, we sit for 2 or 3 weeks.
“So we sit four times a year and if there’s any emergency, there will be an emergency sitting to do a presidential bill on that basis and go back instead of sitting on a full time basis. Not only the Senate and House of Representatives, I’m talking about other Houses of Assembly. So, all the legislative Houses in Nigeria will be part-time.”
The former Abia State governor said this measure will help in saving cost or the country can go back to the regional government it once practised.
“This will be part of austerity measures to reduce cost or we will go for regional government. If we’re going for regional government, it also means that Ministers, the Houses will be disabled. This will help us to save money because Nigeria needs money to run.
“So, I’ll encourage the President, the National Assembly to make this kind of laws. This will help President Bola Tinubu, the system and everybody.”
He added that though their salaries aren’t as huge as people present it, but this measure will make the people believe in the government.
“The salaries of the Senators are peanuts but I want Nigerian people and my colleagues to do a quick constitutional amendment so we can go and be a part-time sitting Senate, House of Representatives and 36 Houses of Assembly. That will bring trust and belief of the Nigerian people.”
