Apart from the issue of fuel scarcity and increase in Premium Motor
Spirit otherwise known as Petrol, no other subject in recent times has
enraged and infuriated Nigerians more than the issue of the jumbo
salaries and allowances of the members of the National Assembly.
Nigeria tops the whole world in one thing: The salaries and allowances
paid to its legislators even in the light of the dwindling fortunes of
the Nigeria economy.
It is baffling!
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is far and away the most personally
disciplined and ascetic Head of State Nigeria has ever had, should
make it one of his priorities to reduce the enormous costs of
governance in the country; and a good, obvious place to start is with
the legislature. In the spirit of change, for which the nation
massively voted last march, the President should work with the
leadership of the lawmakers to agree on a new, more reasonable, less
insane pay scale and allowances for these people.
On top of already high Basic Salaries, how does one explain to
indigent, long-suffering Nigerians in the hinterlands, expensive
prequisites called hardship allowance (while living in Abuja,
Nigeria’s best organised metropolis), recess allowance, entertainment
allowance, newspaper allowance, utilities allowance, security
allowance, car allowance, leave allowance, accomodation allowance, and
other egregious and outlandish allowances? There is a “wardrobe
allowance”, for crying out loud! Were they naked or dressed in rags
before elections?
The figures have been documented. Each one gets paid several millions
of naira monthly; multiplied by 12, it adds up to millions upon
millions per annum. The exact figures are available and have been
published elsewhere; but let’s be discreet to protect the guilty.
Let’s just put it this way: Each of Nigeria’s federal legislators
earns more than the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the
majority leader of the Senate in America. For that matter, each
Nigerian lawmaker earns more than the British Prime Minister, David
Cameron, or the United States President, Barack Obama.
This is a nation where more than 80 per cent of the people live less
than two dollars a day; where university graduates can’t find jobs,
and those who do haven’t been paid for months on end. A nation,
nevertheless, that’s up to its ears in national debt, with very little
to show for it.
Never mind the many privately owned airplanes, the flamboyant,
over-fed, over-dressed and over-indulgent characters you see on
television, in the airports, at wedding ceremonies, at the endless
chieftaincy installation and other “Owambe” parties: the real,
ordinary citizens in Nigeria are among the world’s poorest. Yet, the
lawmakers have managed quietly to secure for themselves the highest
and most unconscionably exorbitant emoluments on the planet.
Sometime ago, a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, declared
publicly that the cost of governance; including the pay and allowances
of legislators was eating up an unsustainable percentage of the
federal budget. The legislators expressed outrage and took umbrage.
They haughtily summoned Ezekwesili to come to the parliament and tell
this to them to their faces. She called their bluff. She accepted
their challenge and their invitation. There was plenty of hullaballoo
about this matter at the time, but nothing came of it. It soon
disappeared from public discourse and the media.
And what, do Nigerians get for this outrageously expensive governance?
Not much. The legislators are not exactly famous for fighting to
improve the lot of ordinary Nigerians. Oh, they do fight, alright:
They have actually had some physical, fistfights on the floor of
parliament. But the fracas and imbroglios were about themselves, for
their posts, their promotions, demotions and overall personal
political ambitions.
Balogun Emmanuel Funsho writes from Ilorin. He can be reached on
irule9ja@gmail.com or 07034444976
