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I thank former President, Olusegun Obasanjo for giving voice to the general feeling of Nigerians on the decadence, corruption and outright robbery going on in the National Assembly.
While it sounds very ill on the mouth of the Chief Obasanjo to accuse his fellow lootocrats of corruption, in this instance however, I implore Nigerians to look at the message and not the messenger.
Obasanjo had said in Abuja last Wednesday that federal lawmakers are costing the Federal Government too much to maintain. The former President further alleged that the National Assembly is a corrupt drain on the country's purse as it emerged that not less than N61 billion has been disbursed to the 469 federal lawmakers in the National Assembly this year alone for their operations.
Obasanjo said: "We should look closely at the legislature so that they can be more open and transparent in the way they do their work. Nobody knows in detail how much it costs us to maintain a senator. I believe it is more than N250 million.
"Compare what it cost in 1999 and 2000. It cost about $1.7 million... They come up and say something is constituency project, what is this constituency project? They insert it in the budget, they would find the contractor and the contractor would work for them, that is constituency project? They then accuse some people of corruption, who are not corrupt", Obasanjo had said.
Interestingly the Lawmakers hit back at Obasanjo for saying they are corrupt, but did not deny what OBJ said or offer proofs to counteract Obasanjo's claims.
Senate spokesman, Senator Ayogu Eze, merely said yesterday evening that the Upper House was not ready for now to engage the former leader in any argument over his comments, but some minority members in the House of Representatives took on the former President and accused him of singling out the National Assembly in a system where officers in the Executive arm spend more on themselves than lawmakers.
The House of Representatives Minority Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, lamely said it was wrong for Obasanjo to blame the high level of corruption in the country on the National Assembly members alone.
They accused the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo of promoting corruption adding that he lacked the moral standing to accuse them
Nigerians have watched helplessly and in bewilderment as the Executive and Legislative arms of government turns into a 'government of looters'.
The annual salary of the president of the United States including his expense allowance is $400,000 or N60 million per year and $350,000 out of it is taxable.
But Senate President, David Mark, gets N250 million quarterly allowance or N83.33 million per month, while his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, gets N150 million per quarter or N50 million a month.
The Senate's principal officers, known as the Senate leadership takes N78 million every three months or N26 million per month.
Effectively, a Nigerian senator was taking home at least $1.40m ($1.28m quarterly allocations + $0.113m regular salaries and allowances) as against the $0.174m an American senator takes home hence a Nigeria senator earns at least 8 times as much as an American senator and more than 3 times the American president.
In India, a legislator earns 16,000 rupee or ($400) that is 60,000 Naira monthly salaries. Yet the GDP of India is 1,296,085 million Dollars while that of Nigeria is 168,994 million Dollars (World Bank 2009).
Each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives takes home a minimum of N27.2 million every quarter but they are demanding for a raise that will increase their quarterly take-home to N42 million.
However, this looting is not limited to the National Lawmakers.
Surveys of salaries and benefits of public office holders from the Baltic to the Bahamas, the Americas and the Far East and all over the world shows that Ministers and Federal Legislators in Nigeria are the highest paid in the world, despite the country being among the poorest in terms of per capita income, security, social provision and living standards.
On the other hand, Nigerian workers are one of the lowest paid in the world.
The Nigerian Minister earns more than his American, British or German counterpart, and of course enjoys pecks of office those ones cannot even dare dream of while a Nigeria senator earns at least 8 times as much as an American senator and 3 times more than the American president, Barack Obama.
A Nigerian Minister is paid N31,915,800 (32 million) per year, comprising salary (2,026,400), and benefits plus allowances (N29,889,400)...American secretary (N23,488,000); British Secretary (N29,736,000) German Minister (N30,287,667.20)."
A Nigeria Minister of State gets N30, 538,248 (salary N1, 957,580; allowances N28, 580,666) higher than those of a South African Minister (N7, 704,558);
Compare again to American secretary (N23, 488,000); British Secretary (N29, 736,000) German Minister (N30, 287,667.20)
A local government councillor in Nigeria earn over N1 million per month while a university professor, or a director in a ministry is paid peanuts as take home.
The salary review of political office holders till date revealed that 17,474 officials earned N1.12 trillion yearly of the N1.12 trillion about N94, 959,545,401.20 billion is spent on salaries and N1, 031,654,689,033.18 trillion goes to allowances annually.
In a country where a police constable earns between N22, 000 and N27, 000 monthly depending on his length of service and accommodation plan, while a sergeant's pay is about N30, 000 and a Police inspector earns about N50, 000 monthly; Is it any wonder that armed robbery and kidnapping is rampant where they observe their representatives smile home with more than N5million Naira monthly in some cases?
Where Teachers and Nurses earn between 25,000 and 30,000 Naira monthly what else do we expect the civil servants to do when their pay cannot provide the basic necessities of life?
In some states, while the state government claims not to have money to pay workers, it finds it convenient to pay politicians hundreds of thousands as monthly salary for doing practically nothing than looting the state blind. How can a state government justify the over N300, 000 salary paid to a ward councillor (and over N60, 000 to a councillor's wife) while the highest paid teachers collects less than 30 percent and the least paid teacher collects less than 4 percent of a councillor's pay. The total annual salaries of councillors in a state like Osun State (running to over N1.4 billion) are enough to employ 2240 workers on N50, 000 monthly salaries. This is pure robbery!
Yet, they reject the payment of N52, 200 minimum wages that the national leadership of NLC and TUC are fighting for.
Nigeria is a relatively poor country and there is no justification for a Nigerian politician earning much more than his American counterpart while others in other callings earn a fraction of what is obtainable in the US.
I think it's about time we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH to this nonsense!!!
When Transform Nigeria Movement (TNM) first alerted the Nation on this looting bazaar in a press release dated Wednesday, 23 June 2010, titled, 'Nigerian Senate...Enough is Enough', that was carried by foremost Nigerian Newspapers including The Guardian, Champion, the Sun, Leadership and others and almost all online media, TNM said: "Nigerians need to know that in addition to the regular and legitimate salaries and allowances of N17 million and N14.99 million which senators and Representatives were collecting yearly and the irregular allowance of estacodes, duty tours etc, they were also collecting N192m and N140m respectively in illegal quarterly allocation which is not provided for by Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC".
However, many doubted our reports. I personally received emails and phone calls querying our figures. Some pointedly asked us to provide the authority for our claims.
I don't blame these doubting Thomases: who would imagine even in his wildest dreams that the Senate President alone takes N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month. Senate Deputy President gets N150 million per quarter or N50 million a month, earning in 4 months, six times what the UK Prime Minister earns in a year?
Who would imagine that other senators and members of the House of Representatives take home up to N351 million and N147 million per person respectively - Overall, the National Assembly is projected to cost a whooping N138 billion, according to the 2010 budget. (What an expensive democracy!)
It is gratifying to note that TNM have succeeded in pushing this crime against the Nigerian people to the front-burner.
On July 28, 2010, Professor Sagay gave a lecture In Ikeja, Lagos saying our legislators are the highest paid in the world.
Repeating almost word for word the contents of our Press Release, Sagay said a legislator in the National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria, earns far more than the United States President, Barack Obama.
And now Obasanjo has again raised this sad episode.
Transform Nigeria Movement therefore earnestly implores all well-meaning Nigerians to rise, condemn and resist this Politicians conspiracy against the nation's fledgling economy and her poor people. There is no doubt at all that the nation's battered economy being bled to death by this leachy political class cannot support this fraudulent practice and no decent society will accept it.
One sad development from this saga is the deafening silence from the civil society on this heart rending development - The Student unions and Labour Movements have gone to sleep!
I remember very well the SAP riots of 1986. The trigger was a report carried in the Ebony Magazine, that amidst the austerity measures that Nigerians were forced to accept, the wife of then Head of State, Maryam Babangida was indulging in opulent life style abroad.
What followed immediately was an uprising that traversed the length and breadth of the country; from the University of Benin to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
Led by the late Tai Solarin, the entire country was brought to a halt! The Head of State, General Ibrahim Babangida was forced to introduce a raft of measures to give "SAP a human face and the milk of human kindness".
Where are such Nigerians today? Who will be the modern day Tai Solarin?
Dear Nigerians, it is time to mount a stiff campaign against the appalling chasm, between the lot of ordinary Nigerians, and those that have chosen to rule over us.
Transform Nigeria Movement is strategising to mount a stiff challenge to the blatant looting indulged by the Lawmakers and allowed by the executive arm of government to enable them indulge in higher looting.
Effective measures will soon be announced, everything is on the Table. TNM calls on all Nigerians to join us and defreeze this frozen political and social mobility on the part of Nigerians.
If this is allowed to go unchallenged, then the nation must have surrendered to the replacing of military dictatorship with civilian version. The time to act is now or we forever keep silent!
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