NIGERIA LAWMAKES’ JUMBO PAY It 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. Let us domestic the presidential system of government, which we borrowed from the United States, to suit our peculiar needs. There is no virtue trying to ape any foreign political model, line hook and sinker. Let us be creative and imaginative even in act of governance and introduce the needed innovations that will enhance the socio-economic development and wellbeing of the country. We do not need 109 senators and 360 members in the lower House to make necessary laws for Nigerians. The time has come to prune down on administrative costs at all tiers of government beginning with the federal to the state and local governments. The federal government can be run with only 36 ministers, assuming that every state must produce a minister. Having two ministers in one ministry is untidy and, at times, it leads to unnecessary conflicts, policy somersaults and misunderstanding. The presidency should reduce the number of political appointees and retinue of aides. Let the First Ladies office be scrapped throughout the country in view of the abuse of such ceremonial office in recent times. Nobody voted any first lady into power. In fact, some state governors do not have the office of the first lady. At the state level, too, the number of legislators should be pruned down as well. The same should apply to the number of commissioners and aides a governor should have. Security vote, which governors take from state allocation, should stop. We have the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) that keeps security for all Nigerians including the governors. Therefore, the security vote collected by governors is unnecessary. One problem with security vote, apart from being unaccounted for, is that it is not uniform among the states. What this means is that it is at the whim of the governor and he can take any amount from the state’s purse, as he pleases, under the cover of security vote. Political posts at the local government level should also be reduced. Unfortunately, the council as a third tier of government enshrined in the Constitution has been subverted by the governors, who refused to conduct council polls. Our presidential system should restore council autonomy as an independent tier of government because subsuming them under the state has proved unworkable for grassroots development of the country. Let us remake Nigeria and remove from the polity all impediments to development including jumbo salary of any sort. We need a country that will be fair to all, irrespective of class, tribe or creed . The jumbo pay is discriminatory and confers undue advantage on certain class of Nigerians. It should be abrogated forthwith.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 22:48:46 +0000
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