House Of Reps Should Be Scrapped - Ray Ekpu

Veteran journalist and member of the Committee on Politics and Governance, Mr. Ray Ekpu, has advocated the scrapping of the House of Representative leaving the Senate as the only national law-making chamber. He frowns at the present arrangement where there is Senate and House of Representatives; describing it as wasteful and overburdening. The founder of the defunct Newswatch magazine alleges that the two chamber parliament is a breeding ground for discord and disagreement as there are endless supremacy battle between the Senate and House of Representative. He calls for increase in the number of Senators from each state of the federation to four per state and one for the FCT. His words, “I will like to vote for unicameral legislature because at present, we are already overburdened. We have 774 parliaments in the local government. We have 36 States Houses of Assembly. And we have two at the national level. I am advocating for the scrapping of the House of Representatives. I will vote for having the Senate. We can increase the number of Senators to four per state. In that case, we will have 144 Senators plus one representing the FCT. We will reduce the cost. We will reduce the friction that currently occurs between the House of Reps and the Senate.” Continuing, Mr. Ekpu makes comparison between the Nigerian national assembly and that of the United Kingdom where supremacy battle between the two law-making chambers in that country is non-existence. He decries a situation whereby the House of Representative is always itching to be at par with the Senate in terms of functions and power. “The House of Reps is called the lower house; they said they are not lower house. We are equals. But the constituencies are not equal. The salaries that they earn are not equal. Nobody in the House of Commons will say Members of Lords, we are equal. They do different things. The Senate does confirmation hearing, but the House of Representative don’t but they say we are equal.” “I am advocating for a one chamber parliament. And that is the Senate,” he concludes. On the issue of state police, Mr. Ekpu states that he votes for state police “hundred percent.” He went on to advance reasons for aligning himself with the clamour for state police. “My position (on state police) is not an armchair presentation. I am speaking because I was a member of the Police Service Commission for five years. And I have knowledge about how the federal police work. “If you have true federal system, you will have state police, state courts etc. These all go with true federalism. We are complaining already with the problem we have in security. And look at the blame game going on between the federal government and the Borno State government.“ He enumerates the benefits inherent in state police, “if you have a police service that is close to the people; that nearness provides protection. It provides cover for the rural populace. Local police will know the territory. If I post a policeman from Abuja comes to my village; he doesn’t know the arrangement, he doesn’t know the terrain. If you don’t have a local police, you will be denied of local knowledge of happenings – customs and people and so on.”