Aisha Yesufu, co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, has made a bold call for the abolition of the Nigerian Senate in a bid to reduce the nation’s expenditure on governance.

Speaking exclusively to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Sunday, Yesufu addressed mounting suggestions to transition Nigeria from its bicameral legislature to a unicameral system, citing the potential for significant cost savings.

The proposal comes amidst growing scrutiny over the efficiency and financial burden of maintaining a bicameral legislature, with Yesufu suggesting that Nigeria could follow the lead of countries like China, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Portugal, which operate successful unicameral legislatures.

Moreover, Yesufu advocated for a reconsideration of the parliamentary system of government, emphasizing the need to curb excessive spending in the National Assembly.

According to Yesufu, without addressing the high cost of governance and rampant corruption, Nigerians will continue to be deprived of the benefits promised by democracy.

She said “We need to really and critically examine our democracy and look at what fits us and serve the ordinary people and the masses. The one that will not be too expensive.

“What we have now is too expensive. We need to cut cost and not just continue what we have that has not been working for Nigerians. I totally support the call for us to have a unicameral legislature. It is very important because the kind of governance that we are practising is very expensive.

“As a country, we really don’t have that kind of money. Apart from this, the fact is that both the Senate and House of Representatives end up duplicating functions in terms of what they do.”

She criticized the Senate, referring to it as “a retirement home for many incompetent and failed governors who didn’t adequately serve their states.”

Yesufu highlighted the burden placed on Nigerians due to the annual allocation of resources to these political figures in the Senate.

She further stated “It (Senate) is a joke ground; we cannot say what the Senate does is in a really sense different from what the House of Representatives do.

“They (Senators) do nothing special and at the end of the day, they are paid humongous amounts of our money and such huge allowances for doing nothing different.

“We found out that a good number of them, especially those that are former governors, while they get this humongous salary, they are as well collecting pension from their respective states.

“There is no way democracy can work for the masses with this kind of waste of public funds that could have been directed to put happiness to the face of the common man.

“The House of Representatives is capable of taking care of the law-making aspect of the nation, oversights and other things that the legislative arm of government does.

“Unicameral legislature should be adopted in Nigeria because bicameralism is too expensive apart from the fact that it slows down the business of lawmaking.

“It is not working for us, we don’t have the kind of money to run it and maintain this, especially at a time when the masses are suffering.

“Having a single legislative arm will pay us better in terms of reduction of cost of governance,” she added