Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who raised the issue during an event in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state, during the week, declared that National Assembly, (NASS) members fixing their salaries and allowances, is a clear usurpation of the duty of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission.
Recent allocation of N70b to themselves from the palliative the Tinubu administration plans is another pointer to the indifference of lawmakers huge cost of governance which the masses feel more.
Also, lawyer and public affairs analyst, Liborous Oshoma, argued that the legislators’ action was not only unconstitutional but morally wrong for them to be talking about increasing their pay now. “It will be disheartening and outrageous display of irresponsibility for anybody at this time to consider a pay rise for a lawmaker,” he stated.
Continuing Oshoma agreed that “NASS members usurped the constitution that established the revenue mobilization and fiscal commission”, noting that “Though they are an arm of government with right to be independent, that does not warrant them fixing their own salaries and allowances.
“It’s not done anywhere in the world where parliamentarians fix their own salaries and allowances. They can vote for increment or reduction depending on the realities of their time.”
Oshoma, while speaking during an Arise Television show, blamed the followers some of whom he said usually troop out to constituency offices daily to collect allowances and peanuts, saying that, “The Honourables dishing out packages, peanuts and handouts are part of cost of governance.”
According to him, “It’s not a bad thing to vote to increase allowances but considering the reality of our time, if you study about 32 countries across the world, Europe, America and Britain, apart from Singapore, Nigeria has the highest earning lawmakers with an average of about $479,000 annually- salaries and allowances, newspaper allowances and the rest.
“That’s next to that of Singapore and if you look at the GDP and economy of Singapore, you can’t be comparing it to Nigeria where you have about 60% of the population in less than one dollar a day.”
Asked if people should begin to approach the courts to order them to make refunds since it’s unconstitutional for lawmakers to fix salaries and allowances (humongous ones for that matter), for themselves, he said, “the problem here is, if you go to court to obtain an order, who enforces the order?
“Recently there was a court order requesting all former presidents and federal government to account for Abacha loot; how do you enforce such order against a sitting president? That’s Abacha, an ancestor, we are now talking about those who are alive and how much they have stashed in banks and properties in Abuja and Lagos. They are funds from politics.
“You will need much more than a court order to recover them because the people that you want to recover the money from are the same people that will enforce such order.”
He then argued that “the people need to ask themselves, is this the kind of system of government we want to continually run? Nigeria is too bogus for us to run from one spot with this idea of it’s our turn; it’s the turn of my people and so on and when your people are there, see no evil, hear no evil and then eat your own. It’s like a country that’s about to collapse and everybody is grabbing.”
Oshoma then suggested that to break that chain, “Nigeria needs to do what Singapore did; begin to look at the quality of people you elect to lead you not just anyhow people- what’s their qualifications? Not just saying ‘I have been asked to contest by my people or ‘I’ve served the leader and it’s my turn’.
“We are waiting for the ministerial list now. Just watch, already the APC National Chairman is saying that the president should patronise politicians.
“It’s good to patronise politicians that worked to ensure the emergence of the candidate but also look at the larger interest of the country. Like the president said, we begged to serve, so let them serve. That’s the only way we can stop going to court to get orders that will amount to nothing.”
Oshoma further stated that the change needs to begin from the smaller local governments because that’s the government that is closest to the people emphasising that, “until we restructure Nigeria to governance properly at the local level where the people can access governance and understand the importance and imports of government, we’ll just be going around in circles.
“Unfortunately, those in government now were the people who campaigned vigorously while they were in opposition about restructuring. It will be a good time to remind them that this is the time to actually start to restructure.”
Disappointed by how the Senate has been turned into retirement home for former governors, he however, commended former governor of Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel who wrote to pension office to stop his pension as a former governor since he is now a serving senator. “How many others have written similar letters to their state governments to stop their allowances,” he questioned.
Still on cost of governance in Nigeria, he described the idea of governors having outrageous number of assistants as “election rigging” noting that, “by the time you have 250,000 people who are doing nothing, and you pay them from state fund, it means they must vote for your party otherwise the money won’t come.”
The analyst advocated skill acquisition centres to be built where the people will learn skills and be paid from money generated.
He further harped on the need to educate the people through orientation agencies at all levels to demand good governance from leaders rather than collecting handouts, stressing that the same handouts are funds meant for development of their lives and areas.
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