Following a report by The Economist magazine that Nigerian federal legislators were the highest paid in the world with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum (N30.6m), there has been outrage that the lawmakers are earning so much whereas the workers are getting poorer. Experts have called for protests to force down the outrageous remuneration. The bickering over the federal legislators’ basic salary of N30.6m per annum, the highest in the world, first came up in 2010 when renowned lawyer, Prof. Itsey Sagay, raised the alarm about the high salaries in July, 2010 in a lecture in Lagos entitled, ‘Legislating for the common good: Contemporary issues and perspectives’. In retrospect, Sagay had said a senator earned N240m ($1.7m) in salaries and allowances while his House of representative counterpart earned about N204m ($1.45m) per annum. A subsequent lawsuit filed by human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, was thrown out of court for lack of locus standi. However, three years after, The Economist magazine revived the controversy as it calculated Nigerian lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the country’s per capita income and compared it with other countries to arrive at the conclusion that legislators’ jumbo pay partly accounts for the nation’s high recurrent expenditure. Ironically, before the N18,000 increment, Nigeria’s minimum wage of N7,500 was one of the lowest in the world. The tragic situation created by such salary disparity, where legislators serve their own interest rather than the public good, critics say, endangers the stability of the country’s democracy. Labour experts argued that the huge salaries of the lawmakers were clearly unsustainable and the anomaly of paying themselves such emoluments was seriously endangering the country’s democracy as more people move down the poverty line due to poor salary. A labour activist, Mr. Lawal Adedokun, said Nigerians should rise up and force the lawmakers to make public their salaries. He said, “Why have they been playing cat and mouse about their wages. This is a sign that we are not a serious nation; no serious nation pays such amount to its lawmakers. In US and other advanced countries, the salaries of lawmakers are there for people to see but the reverse is the case in Nigeria. I want to call on Nigerians to protest this anomaly. “Poverty is doing people more harm than ever and our lawmakers are busy enriching themselves at the expense of the populace. Let’s look at the minimum wage, what can N18,000 do in this present economic circumstances? But our lawmakers prefer to review their own salary, which is already on the high side.” In his reaction, the Managing Director, Sotice Investment Company Limited, Mr. Adedayo Toluwase, said, “In all fairness, the country’s minimum wage is on the low side. There’s nothing one will do in the present day Nigeria with N18, 000. However, we should also realise that is just the minimum wage and not the average wage.” On the lawmakers’ salary, Toluwase urged politicians to clarify the issue. He said, “I see no reason why the lawmakers are silent about the issue. If truly they are not earning as high as that, they should come out with facts and explain to Nigerians.” Quoting data from the International Monetary Fund and The Economist magazine of London, the study looked at the lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product per person across countries of the world. According to the report, the basic salary (which excludes allowances) of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600. The $189,500 earned annually by each Nigerian legislator is estimated to be 52 per cent higher than what Kenya legislators, who are the second highest paid lawmakers, earned. Meanwhile, there are plans by the Senate to remove the Minimum Wage Law from the Exclusive List. The move, the Nigerian Labour Congress said, was inimical to the well-being of the weak and economically disadvantaged persons in the country. The NLC President, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, who stated this in a statement on Sunday, added that the initiative had serious implications for national security, productivity and well-being of the low-income earners. He noted that if given the opportunity to fix their respective minimum wages, state governments would not hesitate to pay minimum wages as low as N1,000 to their workers in spite of the huge resources available to them. He said “The Nigeria Labour Congress notes with concern efforts by the Senate to remove the national Minimum Wage Law from the Exclusive List in defiance of reason, popular opinion and protection of the interest of the weak and the vulnerable. “The removal will unnecessarily expose Nigerian workers, especially, those in the low-income bracket, with grave implications for security, productivity and national well-being, as most state governments, if given the latitude, will pay wages as low as N1,000 per month in spite of the relatively enormous resources available to them. “This fear is justified or underscored by the reluctance or refusal of some of them to implement the N18,000 Minimum Wage Law. Even for some of them that implemented the law, it took a heroic struggle.” Also, the jumbo salary attracted sharp criticism and outrage from Nigerians across the country, including economists and lawyers. An Associate Professor of Economics at the Ekiti State University, Dr. Abel Awe, said the lawmakers’ jumbo salary was indicative of the huge gap between the poor and the rich as well as between the ruler and the ruled. He said it was unfortunate that the country was running the costliest democracy in the world. Awe said, “This is part of the reason why 70 per cent of the nation’s budget is allocated to re-current expenditure. We are using a huge chunk of the nation’s resources to service just less than 1,000 people in a country of over 160 million people.” An economist, Mr. Henry Boyo, said the study had shown clearly that the cost of governance in Nigeria was very high. Boyo, who noted that the cost of governance was predicated on the provisions of the Constitution, said it was high time Nigerians cried against the bloated cost of governance. He said, “Our legislators’ actions or salaries are actually accommodated by the Constitution. In the past, we had less money and we had enough as a country. People are asking for a change of Constitution. “It is unfortunate that it is the people who will do it that are the ones in charge. The legislators will not vote against themselves.” The Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja branch, Mr. Monday Ubani, said the legislators had created “a big hole” in the nation’s treasury. Ubani, who scored the legislators low on output, said they had failed to justify their fat pays, adding that their submissions in both legislative chambers “are at variance with that of sovereign Nigerians.” Similarly, human rights lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, lamented the wide disparity between the earnings of the citizens and their legislators, who, according to him, are the idlest, yet earn the most in the world. He said what was obtainable in Nigeria was a parody of democracy whereby the ruling class earned well but preferred to subject the issue of N18,000 minimum wage to debate. Aturu said, “Can you imagine there is still a raging and scandalous debate among some governors on whether or not to pay N18,000 minimum wage? Yet we are in a nation where the idlest legislators are being paid the highest in the world.”
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 10:16:40 +0000
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