Don’t Advocate Senate Scrapping, Sack Us In 2023, Lawan Tells Nigerians
President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, has warned that there could be anarchy if the Senate is scrapped as being clamoured by some Nigerians. He challenged those who are not happy with the senators in the current 9th Senate to vote them out in 2023. Lawan stated this on Friday while declaring a retreat for the top management staff of the National Assembly Service Commission in Abuja. The three day retreat was organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies in partnership with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.
He described the Senate as a leveller that ensures that all the states are represented by three senators each unlike the House of Representatives where states with higher population produce a higher number of lawmakers. The Senate President also faulted the argument of those clamouring for the scrapping of the Senate because of the perceived jumbo pay being received by the senators, as he noted that the annual budget of the National Assembly is less than one percent of the nation’s 2021 budget. He said, “Without the National Assembly and the legislature across the country, what you have is not democracy anymore. So, the value of the legislature and National Assembly to Nigerians is democracy. If you take out the legislature, it might not be a dictatorship but certainly not a democracy.