Sovereignty belongs to the people in all constitutional democracies. Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as altered) not only provides in Section 2 (a) and (b) that “Sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria”, but that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government…”. This, however, has not been the case since the dawn of democracy in 1999. Public officers’ observe these portions of the Constitution in utter breach. They appropriate to themselves the lion share of state resources and agencies that can enhance the welfare and security of citizens.
HouseLooting and bare-faced frauds against the state, among other official vices, are now having negative spiral effects on other sectors. Provision of power and general infrastructure; and the maintenance of old stock, now pose a herculean task. Schools, hospitals, roads and basic social amenities are rapidly going down and crying for attention. In addition, despite the grave threats to the security of citizens accompanying Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping and other violent robberies and crimes, a sizeable number of security operatives – soldiers, police and paramilitary – are still attached to some serving or retired public officers and the business elite, to the detriment of an insecure and under-policed larger society. At the slightest national calamity or economic downturn, however, citizens are forced by the authorities to make sacrifices, no matter what pains and penury they already bore. Sacrifice for public office holders is mere lip service, as the pay-cut controversy in the National Assembly has indicated.
The country parades 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives. Latest reports say a Nigerian Senator earns an annual basic salary of N2,026,400; and a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives N1,985,212. 50. With sundry allowances, however, a senator’s annual pay comes to N12, 902, 360; and a Rep N9,525,985.50. For the four-year tenure which the lawmakers stay in the NASS, therefore, Nigeria spends a total of N1, 406,357,240 as basic salary on 109 Senators and N3,428,994,780 on 360 members of the House of Representatives.
Victor Ndoma-Egba of the 6th and 7th NASS and ex- Senate Leader, did claim in 2013 that his take-home pay after tax was between N900,000 and N600,000. He said the budget of the NASS was “only N150 billion or three percent of the country’s annual budget (now reduced to N120 billion)”; and dismissed the castigation of NASS members’ perceivable flamboyant lifestyle at the expense of Nigerians as “sensationalism, tokenism, scapegoatism and diversionary…”. Presently out of the NASS, he insisted a couple of days ago: “If you compare the pay of a Senator, a Minister and a Supreme Court Justice, they are at par. So how comes that of a NASS member is referred to as jumbo and those others are not? I think the issue to look at is the cost of governance; and I agree that the cost of governance in Nigeria is very high. Besides, the debate about cost of governance did not start today. I was a commissioner 30 years ago, and even at that time, the issue of cost of governance was very topical”. Then you ask: if Ndoma-Egba had been at home with all these truths, in what way, other than defending the indefensible, did he contribute to pruning down the cost of governance for the roughly 16 years he held court as a prominent NASS member?
If NASS, the representative of the people, as purported, is so allergic to pay-cut and couldn’t champion it by example, in a country that burns over 75 percent of her annual budgets on recurrent expenditure, leaving mere pittance for capital needs that should benefit Nigerians, who would? Of this year’s N4.493 trillion budget, N2.616 trillion is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N634 billion for capital expenditure for the nation’s entire 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, for example. The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his early days in office, gave the impression that his leadership would review downward the contentious bogus salaries and allowances of senators. But some senators vehemently kicked against the idea. Nonetheless, the 8th Senate, according to Senator Umaru Ibrahim Kurf, lately, has agreed to a 50 percent cut in the pay of its members. The nation wants this done; and quickly too. The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), may have aided the bloated cost of governance in the country. But it is hopeless crying over spilled milk. The beneficiaries of RMAFC’s recklessness should help it correct itself. The journey of a thousand miles commences with only one step. The NASS should be patriotic enough to take that step.
