CAN YOU SEE THAT? t is no longer contestable that Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world. That fact has been sufficiently substantiated by The Economist of London. A recent report by the widely acclaimed magazine revealed that the Nigerian federal lawmakers with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum (N30.6 million), ranked highest in the world. The magazine, which based its report on data obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), examined the lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person across countries of the world. Going by the report, the basic salary, excluding allowances, of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600. The report also said that the $189,500 earned annually by each Nigerian legislator is estimated to be 52 percent higher than what Kenyan legislators, who are the second highest paid lawmakers globally, earned. The 2013 report’s breakdown of global legislators’ earning as a ratio of GDP per person shows that a Nigerian legislator earns $189,500; Kenya $74, 500; Ghana ($46,500); Indonesia ($65,800); South Africa ($104,000); Brazil ($157,600); Thailand ($43,800); India ($11,200); Italy ($182,000); Bangladesh ($4,000); Israel ($114,800); Hong Kong ($130,700); United States ($174,000); and Japan ($149,700). Others are Singapore ($154,000); Australia ($201,200); Canada ($154,000); New Zealand ($112,500); Germany ($119,500); Ireland ($120,400); Britain ($105,400); Pakistan ($3,500); Saudi Arabia ($64,000); Malaysia ($25,300); France ($85,900); Sweden ($99,300); Sri Lanka ($5,000); and Spain ($43,900). Although The Economist report on the jumbo pay of Nigerian legislators is the latest and most comprehensive because of its global nature, the first person to draw the attention of Nigerians, statistically, on the higher percentage of Nigeria’s annual budget servicing salaries and allowances of legislators is the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The erudite and controversial CBN boss had variously bemoaned the huge cost of maintaining the federal government, a bicameral federal legislature, the 36 states and the 774 local government areas. He specifically said that it takes about 25 percent of our annual budget to maintain all federal legislators, an issue the legislators could not fault after he defended his position before them. Before Sanusi’s revelation, the discerning public is aware that the current presidential system of government is costly to run. Nigerians know that the easiest means to wealth in the country is through politics. Once a candidate fights and wins an elective post, it is ‘bye-bye’ to poverty forever for the politician and his family. That is why Nigerians can kill one another in the bid to win an election. That may also be the reason our election is still a ‘do or die’ affair. Seeking for an elective post in Nigeria is no longer for public service it ought to be. It is now a private affair once the candidate has been declared a winner and given a certificate by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). For instance, once a gubernatorial candidate wins an election, the opposition is suppressed to the point of annihilation while the state legislators and the judiciary are bullied and muzzled to total submission and made to act as it pleases the new man of power. After shutting down all opposition, the new helmsman becomes the Lord of the Manor in his self-conceived animal farm. His commissioners and other political appointees become errand boys that can be dismissed at will. It is common knowledge that some governors are so wise and knowledgeable in virtually every issue that they have assumed the notorious toga of ‘master-know-all’ or what is called in local parlance, ‘over sabi’ or in Igbo, ‘eze onye agwalam’. The modern day Nigerian democrat turned-autocrat does not listen to advice no matter how good it may be. They run their states as private estates. This is too bad for our nascent democracy. In a country where more than 70 percent of the population is reportedly living in abject poverty, at less than one US dollar per day, it is reprehensible and immoral for our lawmakers to be earning the jumbo pay amid other allowances. This is happening in a country where funding of university education is nothing to write home about, where the health sector is in perpetual coma and unemployment is at a very high level with graduates that have searched for job eight years after graduation. This is a country where the minimum wage is a paltry N18, 000; yet many states are unwilling to pay it. Why must the tax payers’ money be spent to maintain our bicameral legislature, which is made up of mostly retired people? Why spend so much money on people who are already pensioners while the youths are daily walking the streets in search of elusive jobs? Is it not time the legislative duty becomes part-time that should only attract sitting allowance instead of the current and unsustainable jumbo pay? Let us run a unicameral legislature at the federal level with only 109 members. Since they sit for 186 times in a year, it should be on part-time basis alone. Even with the 186 days sitting, there are still empty seats during proceedings. Most of them are absentee lawmakers yet they receive full pay. This absurdity can only happen in Nigeria.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 19:37:31 +0000
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