USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [dandalin-siyasa] Between Sanusi And [the Nigerian ] National assembly

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From: Abdullahi Dahiru <maikanodahiru@yahoo.com>
Date: 7 December 2010 10:43
Subject: [dandalin-siyasa] Between Sanusi And National assembly
To: Dandalin siyasa <dandalin-siyasa@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: dandali@yahoogroups.com, yanarewa@yahoogroups.com, raayiriga <raayiriga@yahoogroups.com>

 

Muhammad Al-Ghazali The past few weeks were certainly not the best for the Honourable Members and Distinguished Senators in our National Assembly (NASS). First, they had to contend with the barrage of criticism and negative media coverage of their ill-conceived attempt to rail-road themselves into the National Executive Committees (NEC) of their various political parties by amending the 2010 Electoral Act currently before them; soon after, they were on the defensive over their fat cat salaries, the same week after the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) had to literally pass through the eye of the needle before its demand for eighteen thousand Naira as minimum wage for workers was grudgingly approved by the National Council of States. It emerged soon after from a lecture delivered in Benin by the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi that the NASS accounted for more than 25% of the nation's overhead budget in 2010. If the leadership of the NASS had bordered to hire a reputable PR Consultant, they would have thought better of their next course of action; which was to invite the Minister of Finance and the CBN Governor to explain their comments. A PR Consultant worth his onions would have simply told them to perish the thought. He would have advised them to allow sleeping dogs to snore for eternity. Why? Well, even before Sanusi's intervention, the NASS already faced a major PR disaster, comparable only to what would have confronted Shell in a major oil spill, in my opinion. In such instances, the best approach is not to deny the obvious or even attempt to defend the indefensible. If the NASS was an oil company like Shell, denying that the spill occurred in the first place would not help. The emphasis would be on ongoing efforts to manage or mitigate the suffering of those drastically affected by it. That is the golden rule. But then, our NASS is not made up of ordinary mortals, obviously. Last week, the NASS hurled both the Minister of Finance Olusegun Aganga, and CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi before its joint Committees on Finance, Appropriation, Banking and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and attempted to bludgeon both into submission. Worst; it permitted live television coverage of the event. That was how I became an eye witness to their self-inflicted injury! Aganga quivered and almost caved in. Not so Sanusi, for understandable reasons. The Joint Committees were led by Senator Iyiola Omisore, still smarting from the foreclosure of his elaborately conceived plans to succeed Olagunsoye Oyinlola as Governor of Osun state in 2011! This was the same man who elected from prison where he was confined for the unresolved murder of erstwhile Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige. Such antecedents were unlikely to help the public perception of the actions of members of the joint Committee. And the NASS's poor image would not improve even if the correct percentage of the overheads incurred by it stood at 3.5% as they claimed. In a nation bedevilled by collapsed social infrastructure, insecurity, crunching poverty, endless strikes by doctors and university lectures, and where even the recently approved minimum wage of eighteen thousand Naira is not guaranteed for majority of workers; even 2% seems obscene for an institution in which a single senator earns 45 million Naira quarterly  in allowances! If members of the NASS had executed their duties more faithfully; if they had ensured the speedy passage and utilization of Appropriation Bills over the years; and, if they had done more to curb the excesses of the executive arm on matters that are pertinent to the greater majority of Nigerians, perhaps they would have had more sympathy, in this case. But the manner they attempted to extract their pound of flesh from Sanusi was instructive. It exposed an institution far removed from existing realities on the ground. In one incredulous moment, after Sanusi refused to apologise, the Committee celebrated and jeered in equal measure when it emerged that the CBNs own annual budget was more than twice that of the NASS as if that alone exonerated them from all their problems. It was the highest degree of ignorance imaginable. The CBN, after all, is not all about its imposing Head Office in Abuja. It maintains branches and currency centres in virtually all states of the federation including the FCT. It employs thousands of Nigerians it needs to keep supremely motivated and equipped to cope with a sector imperilled by the aftershocks of the global economic meltdown. And just in case the Senators require further proof that there is no correlation between the budget of the NASS and the CBN, the later is also statutorily required to procure and circulate the currency we use, as well as to serve as the banker of last resort to the government with obvious implications to its capital and recurrent expenditure. It is also involved in capital and liquidity management along with provisions for depreciation, among others. The CBN Governor, to his eternal credit, has won global acclamation for his speedy intervention to save the Nigerian banking system from negative effects of developments in the global financial system. He is not perfect by any means, but he has given Nigerians something that resonates with them in his efforts. All they ever asked from the 469 pampered souls in the NASS is to provide the difference between the despicable dictatorships we have had in the past, and the democracy they expected so much from in the manner they checked the excesses of the executive arm for the collective good. Eight years of Obasanjo and nearly four years of Yar'adua/Goodluck Jonathan has proved that our NASS is still work in progress. That was why after watching the live proceedings last week I quickly concluded that it was a battle they were destined to lose. If the intention was to humiliate Sanusi, they scored an own goal. Going by public reactions the general impression is that they lacked empathy for their fellow Nigerians even in these hard times. http://www.dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7893:between-sanusi-and-national-assembly&catid=7:opinion&Itemid=12

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