The candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, for Adamawa Central Senatorial District, Senator Abdul-Aziz Nyako, has spoken of the need to do a law that will make it easier for the poor to successfully run for political offices.
Nyaki, speaking at a townhall meeting in Yola as part of his Senatorial campaign, said a law to give enablement to the poor, similar to the Not-Too-Young-to-Run law favouring young politicians, is necessary to counter the prevailing electoral process which substantially excludes people who are not rich.
Speaking during a media interaction segment of his Meet-the-People townhall meeting in Jimeta at the weekend, Abdul-Aziz who championed the Not-Too-Young-to-Run Bill in the Senate, expressed the view that the presidential system of government is too large and expensive to run.
“If I had my way, we will return to the parliamentary system of government with its slim parliament and few institutions. This presidential system that we run is too large and too wasteful, ” he said.
Responding to a question on the ‘fat salaries’ senators receive, Abdul-Aziz Nyako, who was in the Senate from 2015 to 2019 and seeks to return via the coming National Assembly election, said that fat as the emoluments of senators seems, what needs to change is expectations of the people from their senators.
According to him, by the time a Senator is done meeting the demands of people of his constituency every month, he would very probably have gone into his own money, beyond what he earns in salary and allowances as senator.
He said, “Now, if you are dealing with 76 wards and almost a thousand polling units, that gives you idea of how little the money is considering the expectations of your people. They demand everything under the sun. From my own experience, every month I had to carry red. I was never stable financially till I left the Senate. The People were perpetually asking for things. I left the Senate with less assets than before I got there because I had to sell off many things.
“So, it’s not about raising or reducing the income of our senators; it’s about expectations of our people. Our people should have mercy on senators.”
