Legislators’ undeserved pay

The management of National Assembly and the leadership of both chambers have consistently frustrated any efforts made to ascertain the actual remuneration of members. Requests and efforts by civil society groups, spirited individuals and some Newspaper houses to bring to fore, the pay package of these people have continued to suffer setbacks, even after the […]

The management of National Assembly and the leadership of both chambers have consistently frustrated any efforts made to ascertain the actual remuneration of members. Requests and efforts by civil society groups, spirited individuals and some Newspaper houses to bring to fore, the pay package of these people have continued to suffer setbacks, even after the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill which made it compulsory for such information and others to be available at the public domain on request.
Presently, the reason for withholding this vital information from the public is staring all of us in the face. The wind has blown and we have seen the hidden rump of the fowl. The Economist, a United Kingdom based weekly magazine, has revealed and adjudged members of the National Assembly to have received and still receive so much undeserved money as salaries and emoluments of 116 times more than the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)per person and also more than legislators in developed and wealthier nations, thereby making Nigeria the most expensive democracies in the whole wide world.
In the face of glaring abject poverty, dilapidated infrastructure and diseases to mention but a few, it is incredible and heart breaking too to note that one single Senator and member House of Representatives takes home N61,330,560 and N48,195,647 annually respectively in both salaries and allowances. This is happening in a country where majority struggle to survive on less than one dollar per day. A country where a meagre N18,000 minimum wage has become an unresolved recurring decimal in government/labour industrial relations. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn (Prov. 29:2). In as much as the wicked beareth rule and the gap between the haves and the haves-not continues to widen, what else do you expect other than the precarious situation we have found ourselves in?
People have seen holding political offices as the easiest way to acquire illicit wealth. That was why politics has become a do-or-die-affair in Nigeria. In other climes, dog does not eat the bone hung on its neck. But the reverse is the case in Nigeria. If those expected to be ardent custodian of our national till will pillage it to suit their whims and caprices, the nation is doomed.
Are we cursed or are we the cause of our misfortune and predicament? With little or no people oriented legislation to show, these people have dead consciences to have appropriated so much to themselves to the detriment of majority. The Holy Bible says “what shall it profit a man after gaining the whole world but loses his soul…? (Mt 16:26). Vanity of Vanities, said the preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity (Eccl.1:2).
Nigeria has consciously failed to measure up with other countries of the world in growth and advancement in human capital and infrastructural developments compared to her abundant natural and human resources because those in positions of authority have woefully failed to live up to their responsibilities. Nigeria has equally become one of the poorest nations in the world despite these huge resources obviously for lack of vision, selfishness and the high level of misplacements accorded priorities in the country. The question is who will save Nigeria?
The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission is called upon to quickly review downward this undeserved jumbo salaries and allowances of members of National Assembly. Firstly, the economy cannot sustain this legislative profligacy. Secondly, when has the job of legislating in an air-conditioned chamber become more tedious than that of school a teacher who is yet to receive the agreedN18000 minimum wage in many states of the federation? Thirdly, it is highly discriminatory and self-serving.
Finally, it is high time Nigeria thought of parliamentary system of administration because it is more transparent and less expensive to run. Unfortunately, the same members of the National Assembly who are the drivers of constitution review and amendment initiative did not find it attractive for inclusion in the process. Did you hear any mention of it at all? God bless Nigeria!

Eze is of PHCN, Zaria<[email protected]>;