21:06:00
ALTHOUGH the proposed N8.64 billion wardrobe allowance for National Assembly members over which Nigerians have vehemently cried out is not new, the present economic state of the ordinary Nigerian justifies the virulent criticisms leveled against beneficiaries of the huge sum.
Besides, the amount of money in question and the alacrity with which the announcement was made are a test of how far the anti-corruption preachment of this administration can go in time to come.
For anyone who has been optimistic about this administration’s prospect of transforming Nigeria from its pestilential state of corruption to a virile, accountable, transparent and people-oriented economy, the debate over legislators’ allowances would cause the conclusion that the fight against corruption seems doubtful.
A reason for this is that if the list of sumptuous benefits of the legislators were taken into account, it would seem that the wardrobe allowance is merely a metaphor for obscene perks accruable to the legislators.
Apart from the former, there are also allowances for furniture, housing, vehicles as well as allocation of offices to all 469 federal legislators.
This is apart from zero tenure limit, ample recess period constitutionally stipulated at about half of the year, a phoney selection process of candidates and an internal mechanism that is lax in checking the integrity and moral probity of legislators.
A curious thing about all this is that the allowances are supposedly legal, being backed by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Act which empowers the commission to fix salaries and allowances of public officers. In spite of their legality, legislators’ salaries and allowances are scandalous and have been regarded with odium.
Former Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for instance, caused a stir not too long ago when he remarked that legislators’ maintenance gulped 25 per cent of the nation’s recurrent expenditure.
Findings from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) claim that the lawmakers appropriate to themselves N150 billion. Unofficial quarters put the annual remuneration of a senator at N1 billion and that of the House of Representatives member as N600 million.
Despite this observation, the pillaging of the economy had gone on wantonly, giving credence to the view that the National Assembly constitutes an infrastructure of corruption.
Though some have described the salaries as reasonable, but when viewed against the paltry N18, 000 minimum wage being owed workers in many states, the legislator’s jumbo pay is scandalous and odious. Furthermore, the productivity of the National Assembly, as gleaned from the activities of its members in recent times, does not or cannot attract the allowances they give themselves even if it is the law.
For instance, shortly before the inauguration of the eighth Assembly, the Senate hurriedly passed bills that the lower house had thoroughly dealt with, thereby questioning the rationale behind a bicameral system when such disconnect exists between the houses. Even if Nigeria has this money, the allowance is immoral.
It is not tenable in the light of the recent revelation about an empty national treasury because this period shows that Nigeria is in dire financial strait. If the legislators are as patriotic as they claim, they should, in solidarity with the low profile state of the economy, be ready to lose much of their perks. This new regime of legislators in the National Assembly must not under-estimate the awareness level of Nigerians, or test their patience by assuming that it is business as usual.
They must understand that this is a different era, one in which Nigerians are more emboldened by the choice they have made; for in the same way the masses reacted against the former administration during the presidential election, in like manner are they prepared to express their discontent and condemnation of any unpopular course of action.
Given the clamour of eminent public commentators and the general public, it is obvious that politicians’ jumbo pay must end. And putting a stop to this depends first, on how the legislators themselves manage their affairs.
Second, it depends on the concert of efforts between the people and the civil society; and lastly, on the RMAFC. Just as the National Assembly is known to harbour unscrupulous, lucre-driven politicians, so also are there men and women who have names to protect and who understand the enormous responsibility placed on them by the people.
These lawmakers should express their moral conviction to ensure that committees are not duplicated. They should take a cue from the United States Congress which has about 22 committees compared to the glut in committees in Nigeria, where the Senate has 58 committees and the House of Representatives has over 300! With this indiscriminate proliferation of committees, every legislator is either a chairman or deputy chairman of a committee.
Moreover, the cost of managing the committees is obscenely high, for it does not make sense to replicate resources already accruable to legislators at the committee level.
This has a management cost that the country cannot afford. In this regard, it is argued that Nigeria does not need a bicameral legislature; rather, what the nation needs is a part-time legislature, one so devoid of the present extravagance and luxury that only genuine nation-builders would stay.
All over the world, right from ancient Rome to enviable democracies of today, the lawmaker is a respected and highly revered personality in the political space. By virtue of his position as the maker of laws guiding man’s relations with the state, he plots the temporal destiny of people.
Through his prodigious engagement with the house on profound matters of socio-economic and political import, and by his sagacious management of crisis between the legislature and the executive, the lawmaker occupies a hallowed position that is desecrated by the opulence and profligacy encouraged by unjustified perquisites.
In climes where the political sagacity of the lawmaker is highly prized, the appellation of ‘Senator’ or ‘Federal legislator’ is a status that the bearer covets with sanctimony.
However, the honour accorded the legislator should not be a licence for dubious silence over fiscal oddity, or turn the legislature into a cash-cow. They should bear in mind that consistent with their legislative functions is the exercise of moral rectitude.
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