NASS budget cut; Good but not enough

It is certainly not far reaching enough. The National Assembly members should appreciate the mood of the nation for leadership sacrifices, resource allocation for national development and common good. Nations prosper when their leaders are willing to sacrifice. Conversely nations fail when leaders engage in selfish self help agenda. Should 109 senators and 360 Members […]

It is certainly not far reaching enough. The National Assembly members should appreciate the mood of the nation for leadership sacrifices, resource allocation for national development and common good. Nations prosper when their leaders are willing to sacrifice. Conversely nations fail when leaders engage in selfish self help agenda. Should 109 senators and 360 Members of the House of
Representatives, (some 469 legislators in total!) gulp as much as N120 billion in a year which is twice the 2015 budget of Ekiti State of N80.774 billion, a state with the population of 2,384,212 people? How equitable is it for less than 500 national legislators to gulp N120 billions annually when Osun State with population of 3,423,535 people and unfunded 2015 appropriation bill of N201 billion is yet to pay salaries for 7 months? Benue State has as many as 4,219,244 people, it budgeted N98.54 billion; Zamfara has 3,259,846 citizens and budgeted N92.80 billion; and Ebonyi, budgeted N80.02 billion for 2,173,501 people. The respective budget of these three states is half of the budget of the National Assembly. How equitable is that?
Chapter II of the 1999 constitution deals with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Section  3 mandates all organs of government, exercising legislative, executive or judicial powers, to promote policies towards ensuring:
“(a) the promotion of a planned and balanced economic development; (b) that the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good;
(c) that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group; “
Do the legislators read and re-read the constitution they swore to defend? Kano State budgeted N210 billion in 2015. Kano State has 9,383,682 people. The budget per capital of Kano, estimated at N22,379 is miserable compared to budget per capital of the National Assembly at  N293,398,533! No country can prosper with this wide and widening gap in resource allocation  between the governed and some elected government officials. The National Assembly members should take the advantage of the current goodwill of Nigerians in making an amend failing which they provoke smear campaign and even mass revolt of the people. As the first step the National Assembly budget should be reversed to 2003 budget of N50 billion which will certainly cut the existing budget of the assembly by more than 50 per cent.  After all since 2003, the number of members remains the same while most their infrastructural needs have been long met. The 8th National Assembly must make a difference. It should be accountable to Nigerian people, just as many Executives have done. In April 2009, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua commendably and without pressures whatsoever voluntarily cut the salaries and allowances of political public holders by 20 per cent, to reflect the then global financial crisis. Late Yar’Adua did not wait for Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). As much as N2.5billion per annum was saved from the deductions which was in turn pooled into a fund used to improve on additional transportation for public sector workers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Nigerian economy is worse today than it was under the late Yar Adua due to fall in oil price ad crude oil theft. The 8th Assembly must compliment President Muhammed Buhari in his resolve to cut cost of governance fueled by corruption, the worse form of which is outrageous pay for public office holders.
They must emulate state governors like Mallam Nasir El Rufai  of Kaduna state and his deputy who have cut their pay by 50 per cent and the Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. The legislators must reject the Greek allowances Revenue
Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) generously accorded them. These allowances are unsustainable. They are not based on needs in a depressed economy. Why paying legislators who already collected over a million Naira salary some wardrobe allowance?  It will take a minimum wage earner about 2 years and five months to earn what legislators earn as wardrobe allowance of N506,600. The 8th National Assembly should rightly redirect national resources to priority sectors such as education, health and road construction. The assembly must also urgently review the minimum wage Act of 2010  wich according to the Act expires in July this year. The assembly should constitute the Tripartite Statutory Committee based on equal basis between Government, Organized labour and Organized private sector.