Thoughts On Okorocha’s Idea Of One Senator Per State By Stanley Chidozie Imo, Esq

I just watched a video clip where the Senator representing Imo
West Senatorial District, Owelle Anayo Rochas Okorocha, was
submitting on the floor of the Nigerian Senate that the number of
Senators for each state should be reduced to one and that the House
of Representatives should be scrapped. By his proposition, only 37
members should constitute the Senate and be the only legislative
arm of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

I laughed at the proposition because I see it as populism taken
too far. Furthermore, it did not occur to the Honourable Senator
that if a house must be scrapped that it will be the Senate and not
the House of Representatives. I say so because the House of
Representatives, just like the British House of Commons, is the
more representative house and the house closest to the people.

Historically, the House of Representatives was the most powerful
chamber in Nigeria’s First Republic. Under the 1963 Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the House of Representatives was
the most important chamber. The Senate was more or less a
ceremonial chamber. Under that constitution, all money bills
originated from the House of Representatives. All the ministers,
including the Prime Minister, were members of the House of
Representatives. All major decisions of government were taken in
that house.

Even in the United States that practices presidential system of
government, the House of Representatives is also a powerful house.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the 3rd person in
the line of succession. He takes immediately after the United
States Vice President. It took a long and tortuous debate before
the United States adopted the bicameral system of legislature. Some
people proposed a single house that will be based on population
while others proposed a single house that will be based on equality
of states. This gave rise to what is known as the Connecticut
Compromise.

The Connecticut Compromise (also known as the Great Compromise
of 1787 or Sherman Compromise) was an agreement the large and small
states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in
part defined the legislative structure and representation that each
state would have under the United States Constitution. It retained
the bicameral legislature as proposed by Roger Sherman, along with
proportional representation of the states in the lower house, but
required the upper house to be weighted equally among the states.
Each state would have two representatives in the upper house.

By this arrangement, large states have more members in the House
of Representatives while every state has equal number of Senators
in the upper house. Currently, California has 53 members in the
House of Representatives while they have 2 Senators. Alaska has
only one member in the House of Representatives while they have two
Senators. There are many states in the United States that have only
one member in the House of Representatives while states like Texas,
New York, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, etc have 36, 31, 25, 18, 16
members respectively in the same house. This is because of the
population of these states. Meanwhile, all the states have two
Senators each.

So by Okorocha’s proposition he is suggesting we have one house
based on equality of states. In that case, states like Kano and
Lagos will have the same number of Representatives with Bayelsa and
Ekiti. I am sure the more populous states will kick against this
proposal. Just like it happened in the United States in 1787 during
their Constitutional Convention. In other to accommodate everybody
they reached a compromise and decided to have two houses. One house
based on population and the other based on equality of states.

The reason why Okorocha is making this proposition is, according
to him, to reduce the cost of governance. There are other ways we
can reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria without scrapping any
of the Houses of the National Assembly. We have nearly forty
ministers in Nigeria while United States has twenty. Some Governors
in Nigeria, including Okorocha himself, have over bloated cabinet.
As the Governor of Imo State, Okorocha created all manner of funny
ministries which included the notorious Ministry of Happiness which
was headed by his blood sister, one Mrs Ogechi Ololo.

We can cut down on the salaries and allowances of our public
officeholders. We can even make the legislature a part-time job.
What of the notorious security vote? That should be scrapped too or
at least make every person that collects security vote to account
for it. If it is not possible to account for it publicly as a
result of security concerns, then to a select number of lawmakers
who have the requisite security clearance. After all the
appropriate United States Congressional Committees on Intelligence
do exercise their oversight functions over the CIA, FBI, Homeland
Security, etc.

The Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, while responding to
Okorocha’s proposition, advised him to propose a bill for the
amendment of the constitution in line with his proposition. Until
Okorocha does that, I will consider this as a mere political
populism and grandstanding.

**Mr Imo is the 1st Vice President of the Nigerian Bar
Association.