Orji Kalu seeks part-time legislature to ‘cut cost of governance’

Orji Kalu, senator representing Abia north, has suggested a part-time legislative system at the national and sub-national levels to cut down the cost of governance.

In a video posted on his Facebook page on Sunday, Kalu said the legislature across the country should sit for three or four times annually — except for emergency plenaries.

“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,” the senator said.

“So we can sit four times a year and if there’s 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.

“Not only the senate and the house of representatives, but all the legislative houses in Nigeria will be part-time.

“If we are going for a regional government, it also means that the ministers, the legislators will be the same. I have been tinkering with the idea of how we can save money to run Nigeria because the country 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.”

Kalu said senators are not well paid, but a part-time legislative system would “bring trust and bring relief to the Nigerian people”.