BY MOSES IDIKA,ABUJA
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Air Force, SENATOR BALA IBN NA’ ALLAH (APC, Kebbi) has stated that bicameral legislature remains the best option for Nigeria’s democracy because it best reflects and protects the diversity of the peoples of the country.
The lawmaker stated this in Abuja on Monday in a speech he delivered at the 2019 Legislative Conference organized by Hallowmace Communications limited in conjunction with the NATIONAL ORIENTATION AGENCY (NOA) in Sheraton Hotels, Abuja.
He stated that the framers of the Nigerian constitution carefully opted for bicameral legislature to accommodate the plurality and diversity of the country in a way that there will not be undue domination of any ethnic group against another.
IBN NA’ALLAH explained that with over 270 ethnic groups in Nigeria, the adoption of bicameral legislature was done to accommodate almost all ethnic groups in the decision making process in order to boost inclusiveness and sense of belonging among the different nationalities that make up the country.
He said: “Based on assumption, there are over 270 ethnic groups in Nigeria, some say we are even more than that. Democracy is about participation in governance, so naturally each and every ethnic group in this country will want to participate in the decision that will shape their future and that of their children and grandchildren. And that is why the framers of our constitution deemed it fit to say ok let us have the 360 members of the House of Representatives as nearly as possible to come from the divers ethnic groups from this country so that everyone will have a sense of belonging.
“The thinking and intension was if you participate in the governance you will become a patriotic citizen solely involved in the nation building of your country.
“As soon as that decision was taken, politicians said that since these constituencies were created on the basis of population and land mass and those of you who have seen the map of Nigeria will see that the upper North is bigger in size and of course even in numbers which is normal. And the reason is that substantial number of Northern citizens are Muslims who are permitted to marry more than one wife and what that means is that they will produce more
[children]
and therefore they will have more populations.
“So by representation in the House of Representatives what you are going to have is the predominance of the Northern members in the House of Representatives. And democracy being what it is, the recurrence suspicion whereby more than half of the people will be right more than half the time it means that any issue that will be discussed in the House of Representatives, the North will have overbearing position.
“It is in reaction to this that the suggestion was made to create the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with equal members of senators based on state. So no matter how small your state is or how small your population is you have that representation. And they (framers of the constitution) made it that the decisions of the two chambers can counter check each other. he concluded.
