BY REBECCA AJANI
GOVERNOR Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has denied a report that he called for the scrapping of the Senate.
He said the report which quoted him to have taken this position was an interpretative error.
The Governor said he had, like many other well-meaning Nigerians, identified Nigeria’s Bicameral Legislature and its full-time status as plausibly reducible weights to cut cost.
He spoke through his Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo.
Akeredolu, who was represented by his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, at the Akure Centre of the Southwest Zonal Public Hearing, organised by the House of Representatives Special Committee on Constitution Review, was quoted to have said that Nigeria should explore unicameral legislature and move towards dropping the current bicameral structure.
He reportedly said, “The membership of the Assembly should be part time. No member should earn allowances not known to the Revenue Mobilisation and Allocation Committee, and the people they claim to serve.
“Legislators should earn under a uniform salary structure. Allowance peculiarities must not be about obscenity. The Senate should be scrapped.”
But refuting this, his Information Commissioner said, “Succinctly, Governor Akeredolu’s view, which is the official position of the Ondo State Government is that, adoption of the Unicameral Legislature, and making it part-time would not only cut cost of governance but has the potentials of enhanced performance and altruistic services to Nigerians.”
“Therefore, ascribing or misinterpreting this proposal to isolatedly, depict a call for the scrapping of the Nigerian Senate is erroneous. The call for a part-time Unicameral Federal Parliament remains and shall be pursued with all vigour,” he noted.
