Senator Orji Kalu proposes part-time legislature, says it will help cut cost of governance in Nigeria

A Nigerian Senator representing Abia North of Abia State, Senator Orji Kalu has proposed an amendment to the constitution to reduce federal and state lawmakers’ plenary to four times a year, explaining that it will help cut the cost of governance in the country.

Penpushing reports that Kalu, a former Governor of Abia State, who was convicted of stealing public funds as Governor but had his conviction cancelled for technical reasons by the Supreme Court, made the proposal in a viral video shared on his verified Facebook page on Sunday.

The federal lawmaker who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation in the video confirmed by one of his aides Kenneth Udeh, as authentic, called on his (Kalu) colleagues both at the federal and state to agree with his proposal

“I think it will be a very good idea if my colleagues and other members of the houses of assembly will agree that we can sit for three months and do constitutional amendment first from 2027 to sit three months’, he stated.

“In three months, we sit for two weeks or three weeks, so we sit four times a year, and if there is any emergency, there will be emergency sitting, we can come to do a presidential bid on that basis and go back instead of sitting on a full-time basis’, Kalu added.

“Not only the Senate and the House of Representatives. I am talking about other houses of assembly in Nigeria. All the legislature houses of Nigeria will be part-time. This will be part of the measures to reduce costs, or we will go for a regional government. If we are going for regional government,” he said.

Penpushing further reports that the former Governor called on President Bola Tinubu and other members of the National Assembly to develop legislation that will legalise the part-time legislature system in the country.

“If we are going for a regional government, it also means that the ministers and the legislators will be the same because I have been tinkering with the idea of how we can save money to run Nigeria because Nigeria needs money. I will encourage the President, the National Assembly to make these kinds of laws. This will help him, and this will help the system, and this will help everybody,” he added.

Penpushing also reports that in same vein Kalu, encouraged his colleagues to amend the constitution immediately, emphasizing that that will bring trust and relief to the Nigerians, who he admitted are suffering

“I want Nigerians and my colleagues to do a quick constitutional amendment so we can go and be a part-time sitting Senate and part-time sitting House of Representatives and other 36 state houses of assembly in Nigeria. That will bring trust and relief to the Nigerian people’, he emphasised.

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