New Dawn for Nigeria?
Fifty years of nationhood, a golden moment to behold. A time of jubilee. But the land is somber. It seems the celebration is for and by a powerful few. In most of Nigeria it is just another day. But we need not despair. In spite of how things look, the signals are actually encouraging, the omens good and the prospects bought. Nigeria will rise up again and the labours of our heroes past will not be in vain.
It is easy to be despondent when you are unemployed as many of our youth are, angry when your relative has been kidnapped for no just cause or you are in debt or unable to find finance for this great small business idea that will make the misery index not an experience lived but a story of the lot of abstract personages. I have struggled to contain the emotion of personal displeasure of being a victim in many of the games that leave Nigeria prostrate, and to, as objectively as is possible for a human, there being no such thing as complete objectivity in these matters, to immerse myself in the data.
The growth numbers of different economic institutions at home and abroad, the Failed States index, the Jobless Growth study of the World Bank; the Generation Next report, the Newsweek report on the misery centres of the planet in which only Burkina Faso ranked worse than Oil rich Nigeria; and I come away greatly encouraged that Nigeria will rise up again and be paradise dreamt of in 1960.
All things considered, as one European Ambassador to Nigeria who served in China said to me recently, Nigeria keeps reminding him of China 15 – 20 years ago when he wrote reports about the likelihood of China’s take off and people at the home office politely filed away his reports. I can feel it in my bones that Nigeria is set to explode unto the global scene with outstanding economic growth, a new sense of pride and commitment to its natural leadership role in Africa.
As I review things, I see a huge population living abroad, broadening skills and supporting relatives in a way that has made for the strong domestic demand that drives above the premium annual GDP growth rates; combine that with the Youth population that can yield massive demographic dividends as our democratic effort begins to produce leaders whose objective is advance of the common good, not the pleasures of power, and the pillage of the commonwealth. I can project growth that makes China look like modest accomplishment. I know, therefore in my heart that Nigeria will rise up again.
Indeed I think it self-evident that if our elite can discover its mission and decide in the Franz Fanon sense not to betray it, that we will go from de – industrialization in which manufacturing collapsed from 13 per cent of GDP to less than 3 per cent of GDPs to one in which our factor endowment yields value chains into global markets where we are extremely competitive creating millions of quality jobs. Here I pay tribute already to such initiatives by people like Pedro Egbe in Oil and Gas in the Niger Delta but expect same for Gum – Arabic and Chemical Industry corridors in the North West, Food Processing in the North Central and Rubber in the South West. Surely Nigeria will rise up again.
It is not by accident that I fell in love with a song and appropriated it is my personal anthem.
Nigeria will rise up again, Nigeria will rise up again, (twice)
God will heal our land, restore us anew,
Nigeria will rise up again.
But it will rise not in the acrimony of self first in search of personal comfort-zones. It will rise in the realization that “I am because we are”, and that all can work together for a win – win outcome. Nigeria seems like a crippled giant because of a zero – sum mentality. We can all win if we work together. The trouble with the speed of the spirit of Nigeria soaring in flight remains a challenged middle class too wrapped in the pursuit of individual comfort zone that they forget that “ I am because we are”. The Nigerian spirit in ascent has to draw strength from new thinking that gives up the zero – sum mindset in which someone else’s success is seen as the loss of another. A win – win logic in which we discover the mission of our generation and collaborate in its pursuit will quickly see Nigeria rise again, a new set of values, replace this present times of a collapse of culture. The urgency of now is getting all to work together for advance of the common good rather the dominant way of plotting the end of the dream of your neighbour as assurance of your victory, Nigeria will rise up again.
As we celebrate 50 years of Independence and we seem separated between those in power and positions of privilege who celebrate and most of the rest are left wondering what is going on, a sense for the possibilities which profit all, especially as it is clear the present modus vivendi is not sustainable, should bridge the imagined divides between stakeholders, that Nigeria may rise up again. Surely we can overcome the many injustices that mark Nigerian history and God will heal our land that Nigeria may rise up again. The peace and prosperity symbolised by our flag should rally all to a common vision so that Nigeria will rise up again.
• Utomi, Political Economist, Professor of Entrepreneurship, and Business Angel was candidate for President in 2007.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
2011: Nigerians angry as Senators double jumbo allowances By Patrick Okohue
2011: Nigerians angry as Senators double jumbo allowances By Patrick Okohue
Nigerians are angry; many are getting frustrated and are screaming on top of their voices. Their frustration is all geared towards the same direction. They are miffed that in a country where hunger,
lack and squalor are the order of the day, its National Assembly seem to be insensitive to their plight.
Their outrage stems from recent report from the upper chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate, where Senators are demanding for an upward review of their basic allowance from N43Million quarterly to a staggering N100 Million each, to enable them tackle perceived and real opponents ahead of the 2011 general elections.
Many Nigerians are saying that what the take home of the Senators presently is outrageous, yet the lawmakers seem not content and are asking for more.
Many are now asking the rationale for Senators asking for so much. Speaking on the demand, a concerned Nigerian said, “the lawmakers care more for themselves than the masses that voted them into power, I wonder if we have sat down to access the performance of the Senators so far, how many bills have they passed that have enhanced the lives of the masses that voted them, how many of them really know their senatorial district, how many of them do go home to know how their people are faring.”
“They are all in Abuja, buying land in Abuja, building houses in Abuja and looking for areas to invest and even outside the country, it is very unfortunate and if I have my way I will say let all of them go and face the EFCC, because they don’t have anything to offer, can you compare what they are demanding to the number of bills they have passed on education, now education is going down every day and nobody cares about that.”
That only represents the feeling of many Nigerians who are concerned about the type of representation they get, but the Senators are not disturbed by the outrage, provided they can get what they feel belongs to them, because according them, the House of Representatives have already shared theirs, why not the Senate.
According to a source, the Senators quest is in line with their findings that members of the House of Representatives are being well financially rewarded by their leadership and have wondered why that same cannot also happen in the Senate.
In a text message that went round among Senators, the arrow head in the push for the allowance increment is called on his colleagues to put pressure on the leadership of the Senate to increase the allowance of members because “this is election year.”
According to the text message: “My distinguished, each member in the House of Representatives has improved earnings from N25million to N43Million. This is an improvement of forty percent. Reps members are also getting on Prado 4 by 4. This is election year. We should rise up and demand from the leadership what is due us. Our entitlement in the budget is nothing less than N100Million per Senator. David Mark leadership will open up if we request for it. N100 million or nothing”.
If the proposal sails through as expected, it means the Senators would be sharing the sum of N10.9 Billion from the nation’s treasury. These figures do not include non-regular allowances—vehicle loan, furniture allowance, estacode, duty tour allowance and severance gratuity—which are paid separately to each legislator as they become due.
The present demand will make each Senator to be entitled to N100 million per quarter and N300million per annum, each principal officer will be entitled to N450 million, Deputy Senate President N600 million and Senate President N900 million per annum.
This is coming on the heels of alleged recent increase in the allowances of members of the House of Representatives from N25 Million to almost N40 Million from the same source, representing the sum N14 Billion shared by the lawmakers.
According to remuneration package released in 2009 by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy will receive N11 million in basic salaries and regular allowances every year while a member of the House of Representatives will get N9.9 million. Previously, a senator was getting N17 million while a House member was collecting N14.99 million.
The new agitation by the senators for an upward allowance review is not in line with the remuneration package prepared by the RMAFC.
An analyst wondered why the lawmakers will deceive Nigerians, making them believe that they conceded to a reduction in their remuneration last year because of the hardship in the system, only to turn around to demand what is far in excess of what they conceded.
Sources within the Senate noted that already some members have started mobilizing their colleagues to arm twist the Senate leadership to approve the increment.
A Senator from a North Central state is said to be leading the pack of Senators making the demand.
According to findings, quarterly allocation to each member of the House of Representatives has increased from about N25Million to close to N40 Million in the last three years while those of senators have remained in the neighborhood of between N35 million to N45 Million within the same period.
Putting it in perspective, another concerned Nigerian, Andrew Pinneh while responding to an online news report on the issue noted, “we have to put things in perspective first and try and understand the kind of politics we are building and encouraging in Nigeria, whether we are promoting good governance that supports the rule of law and order or we are promoting political decadence or political industry?”
“You see the country we had fashioned our democracy after does not pay as much as what our House of Representatives and the Senate are currently being paid. Currently, the file and rank of the US Senate and House take home a year is $174,000 (N26,274,000), the Majority and Minority leader $193,400 (N29, 203,400) and the Speaker $223,500 (N33,748,500).
“Compare this figures with what our own House and Senate are asking for. Mind you all other benefits paid to these guys are in line with the federal civil service scheme, which is similar to our own civil service. How much does a Permanent Secretary or top civil servants take home a year in Nigeria? Is this in line with what these politicians are asking for? Are we supposed to use the taxpayer’s money to induce party polity and campaign or they are supposed to source their funding by themselves! It is a shame for our dear nation the way the polity is playing out.
“In the UK, a Member of Parliament takes home a year £64,766 (N14, 896,180) about half of what its Nigerian counterpart is receiving. In fact, the Nigerian political office holders are about the most highly paid. But how do we benchmark their performance in relation to their counterpart around the world, we can say that the comparison is infinitesimal to their colleagues around the globe. The results speak for itself.
“We need to ask ourselves, how credible and capable are these politicians seeking re-election for 2011; we all need to draw a checklist of their performance and evaluate to see how many of them are actually capable or credible of being re-elected to the House or Senate. Can you imagine some of them seeking pay rise to help them get re-elected? This is unheard of any where in the world, what parameters do we have in place to checkmate this kind of mindset within our political elite? This calls for concern for all of us,” he said.
He is not alone, Yusuf Olayinka was even more sarcastic in his remarks, to him the demands of the politicians can only be likened to insanity, “these politicians to me are just lunatics. They talk about sharing public fund like is nothing, where an average Nigerian can not afford to eat three time a day.”
“Where degree holders will be forced to serve the country for a year (NYSC) and be kicked out after that and leave them with nothing. A country where all roads are death trap, a country where police rob innocent people of their belongings in broad day light.”
Another respondent shares Olayinka’s sentiment when he said, “this democracy is a demonstration of craziness. Lunatics are never aware of their immediate surroundings where poverty, ignorance and disease are the trade mark.”
But, M S Daura sees the demand as a challenge that all Nigerians will have to address through prayers “I call on all right thinking Nigerian to engage in prayer, may the almighty God take care of our oppressors. May them be oppressed by the lord for what they are doing to us. They are a bunch of lunatics and need to be controlled.”
In anger, Henry Stolly sees the demand as daylight robbery, describing the lawmakers as “dare devils, Constitutional robbers, greedy gluttons. Worse than this, is a silent nation consenting to this nonsense. These robbers live in affluence and luxury, whereas the majority of the populace lacks the basic amenities to live a comfortable life.”
“Oga Senator, do you think N100 million is enough? What about N500 million, or may be you guys should even be paid in dollars or pounds sterling. I foresee a revolution coming, judgement is coming and its coming fast and by the grace of God there shall be a national cleansing in the leadership. May THE ALMIGHTY GOD put zeal in the hearts of men in this nation to hasten this revolution; it is long awaited.
“Every thief in power shall not be spared. How I pray that a “Jerry Rawlings” would be born in our generation. Ah! I think enough is enough of this looting. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. I think this time their agbada don hook barbed wire. Woe betide the man or whosoever that would approve such proposal. You are proposing an increase to bribe yourselves back to power.
For Yerima Waka, “they were never voted in to office” and therefore described them as “gangsters and treasury looters,” praying that, “if they succeed in this their ungodly looting, may peace not be found in what ever they do. May God expose them to shame and disgrace and may all kind of calamities be fall them.”
Another respondent, Isacco noted that “in the abundance of water the fool is hungry.” He urged the lawmakers to go home and rethink if this period of our nascent democracy and decide whether such request is necessary.
Yinka Adedayo, said, “if this is the kind of money available to these guys, why won’t they marry 13 year olds from Egypt? This is a sick country and the more we, the citizens sit back and accept this rubbish, then the more it will continue....... It’s enough for a call to arms!! I am a pacifist, but if I think this way, then the MEND way seems to be justified.”
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gabriel Giwa-Amu, described the situation as pathetic, “the case of the Senate is a pathetic situation, people in the first place who were never elected, if you look at the spate of tribunal judgements and all that.”
“These are people who had no visible means of income before some of them rigged their way into where they are, these are people who went there determined to plunder. Do you know that when a man says that he has N50million in a decent society, it is taxable, but here you have Senators and House of Reps members who avoid taxes, who flaunt stolen money, they act with impunity and enjoy immunity.
“When Festus Keyamo made a complaint of the car scam against Bankole, what was the result, it is only recently that people are saying that that scam was actually true, meanwhile Keyamo was hounded, harassed over that matter, the death of Bola Ige nobody knows who pulled the trigger till now, so when you have a system that cannot check itself, you will still have these problems, because the psyche of the people is now programmed to going there to embezzle.
“A teacher who rigged election to become council chairman can now boast of four houses and over ten cars, because everything is tailored towards corruption, but for the forthrightness of the press, I will say even judges fear you the press, there are some judges who would have given judgements one way, but when they see the avalanche of report , they quickly pretend to be impartial, but at the end of the day, provided the judgement is what it ought to be. So it is the press, not even the EFCC or ICPC, it is the fear of being revealed that has made these institutions at least tilt towards decency, if not don’t be surprised if you hear that your Senate President goes away with N20billion, there is nothing you can do about it, but for the fear of adverse publicity,” he said.
The demand has also not gone unnoticed by the opposition, the Action Congress (AC) in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, accused the lawmakers of looting the national treasury, “and trashing the Constitution by unilaterally awarding themselves huge perks that far outweigh what was approved for them by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the only body Constitutionally-mandated to fix public officers’ pay.”
The party called on the RMAFC to speak up on the issue and the anti-graft agencies to immediately launch an investigation into it.
“The amount approved as monthly pay by RMAFC, including all allowances, for each Senator is N929,000 per month or just over N 11 million per annum. For each member of the House of Representatives, the approved amount is N917,000 per month or about N11 million per annum.
“But the lawmakers unilaterally allocated to themselves, as allowances, N27 million per quarter or N9 million monthly for each House of Representatives member, and N45 million or N15 million per month for each Senator, in addition to the amount approved by the RMAFC. It is public knowledge that they are now seeking to raise the allowance even higher.
“With the illegally-approved sums of money, each Senator will pocket N720 million in four years, while each House member will get N540 million. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Apart from being illegal, it is obscene, in a country where a huge chunk of the population lives on less than 1 US dollar per day,’’ AC said.
The party said when this over-sized perks are put side by side with the equally humongous allowances of principal officers in both chambers of the National Assembly, it is clear that the federal budget is largely being used to service our lawmakers, who are now acting like the ‘Pigs’ in the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.
“Yet-undenied media reports said Senate President David Mark gets N250 million per quarter; Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu N150 million; and each of the eight remaining principal officers N78 million. Little wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 10 years later.
“Ours must be the most expensive democracy on earth, and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the bloated salaries and allowances of our public office holders,’’ it said.
Also speaking on the vexed issue at a recent media interaction, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to discuss the issue with the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to having a proper understanding of the matter and also finding a way around it.
His words: “Not too long ago, the former chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Commission noted that the Nigerian President is the least paid President, but our late President then felt that this is not the time to increase wages and remuneration, because people will misunderstand it.”
“My self and the leadership of the National Assembly discuss from time to time at various levels informally, if this issue is becoming so topical I will again discuss with them, I also think that probably there may also be some misconception.
“I think people are looking at the total budget of the National Assembly and dividing it per head and that is a very wrong way, as if all the money they require is for them to spend for themselves, no, the National Assembly even though they are not meant to do roads, they are not meant to handle capital projects, but they furnish their offices, they buy some operational vehicles, communication equipment and things like that.
“There capital budget may not be much, but the overhead, off course they travel a lot, quite a number of their operation has to do with their oversight function, they travel out of the country, they travel within the country, they sit from Tuesdays to Thursdays, Mondays and Fridays they don’t sit, committees sit at will conducting town halls and all that, probably people are beginning to take funds for overhead as if they are funds for allowances, that is my ordinary thinking,” he said.
But, it will be noted that neither the Senate President, David Mark nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole has publicly made any statement with regards to the issue.
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Nigerians are angry; many are getting frustrated and are screaming on top of their voices. Their frustration is all geared towards the same direction. They are miffed that in a country where hunger,
lack and squalor are the order of the day, its National Assembly seem to be insensitive to their plight.
Their outrage stems from recent report from the upper chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate, where Senators are demanding for an upward review of their basic allowance from N43Million quarterly to a staggering N100 Million each, to enable them tackle perceived and real opponents ahead of the 2011 general elections.
Many Nigerians are saying that what the take home of the Senators presently is outrageous, yet the lawmakers seem not content and are asking for more.
Many are now asking the rationale for Senators asking for so much. Speaking on the demand, a concerned Nigerian said, “the lawmakers care more for themselves than the masses that voted them into power, I wonder if we have sat down to access the performance of the Senators so far, how many bills have they passed that have enhanced the lives of the masses that voted them, how many of them really know their senatorial district, how many of them do go home to know how their people are faring.”
“They are all in Abuja, buying land in Abuja, building houses in Abuja and looking for areas to invest and even outside the country, it is very unfortunate and if I have my way I will say let all of them go and face the EFCC, because they don’t have anything to offer, can you compare what they are demanding to the number of bills they have passed on education, now education is going down every day and nobody cares about that.”
That only represents the feeling of many Nigerians who are concerned about the type of representation they get, but the Senators are not disturbed by the outrage, provided they can get what they feel belongs to them, because according them, the House of Representatives have already shared theirs, why not the Senate.
According to a source, the Senators quest is in line with their findings that members of the House of Representatives are being well financially rewarded by their leadership and have wondered why that same cannot also happen in the Senate.
In a text message that went round among Senators, the arrow head in the push for the allowance increment is called on his colleagues to put pressure on the leadership of the Senate to increase the allowance of members because “this is election year.”
According to the text message: “My distinguished, each member in the House of Representatives has improved earnings from N25million to N43Million. This is an improvement of forty percent. Reps members are also getting on Prado 4 by 4. This is election year. We should rise up and demand from the leadership what is due us. Our entitlement in the budget is nothing less than N100Million per Senator. David Mark leadership will open up if we request for it. N100 million or nothing”.
If the proposal sails through as expected, it means the Senators would be sharing the sum of N10.9 Billion from the nation’s treasury. These figures do not include non-regular allowances—vehicle loan, furniture allowance, estacode, duty tour allowance and severance gratuity—which are paid separately to each legislator as they become due.
The present demand will make each Senator to be entitled to N100 million per quarter and N300million per annum, each principal officer will be entitled to N450 million, Deputy Senate President N600 million and Senate President N900 million per annum.
This is coming on the heels of alleged recent increase in the allowances of members of the House of Representatives from N25 Million to almost N40 Million from the same source, representing the sum N14 Billion shared by the lawmakers.
According to remuneration package released in 2009 by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy will receive N11 million in basic salaries and regular allowances every year while a member of the House of Representatives will get N9.9 million. Previously, a senator was getting N17 million while a House member was collecting N14.99 million.
The new agitation by the senators for an upward allowance review is not in line with the remuneration package prepared by the RMAFC.
An analyst wondered why the lawmakers will deceive Nigerians, making them believe that they conceded to a reduction in their remuneration last year because of the hardship in the system, only to turn around to demand what is far in excess of what they conceded.
Sources within the Senate noted that already some members have started mobilizing their colleagues to arm twist the Senate leadership to approve the increment.
A Senator from a North Central state is said to be leading the pack of Senators making the demand.
According to findings, quarterly allocation to each member of the House of Representatives has increased from about N25Million to close to N40 Million in the last three years while those of senators have remained in the neighborhood of between N35 million to N45 Million within the same period.
Putting it in perspective, another concerned Nigerian, Andrew Pinneh while responding to an online news report on the issue noted, “we have to put things in perspective first and try and understand the kind of politics we are building and encouraging in Nigeria, whether we are promoting good governance that supports the rule of law and order or we are promoting political decadence or political industry?”
“You see the country we had fashioned our democracy after does not pay as much as what our House of Representatives and the Senate are currently being paid. Currently, the file and rank of the US Senate and House take home a year is $174,000 (N26,274,000), the Majority and Minority leader $193,400 (N29, 203,400) and the Speaker $223,500 (N33,748,500).
“Compare this figures with what our own House and Senate are asking for. Mind you all other benefits paid to these guys are in line with the federal civil service scheme, which is similar to our own civil service. How much does a Permanent Secretary or top civil servants take home a year in Nigeria? Is this in line with what these politicians are asking for? Are we supposed to use the taxpayer’s money to induce party polity and campaign or they are supposed to source their funding by themselves! It is a shame for our dear nation the way the polity is playing out.
“In the UK, a Member of Parliament takes home a year £64,766 (N14, 896,180) about half of what its Nigerian counterpart is receiving. In fact, the Nigerian political office holders are about the most highly paid. But how do we benchmark their performance in relation to their counterpart around the world, we can say that the comparison is infinitesimal to their colleagues around the globe. The results speak for itself.
“We need to ask ourselves, how credible and capable are these politicians seeking re-election for 2011; we all need to draw a checklist of their performance and evaluate to see how many of them are actually capable or credible of being re-elected to the House or Senate. Can you imagine some of them seeking pay rise to help them get re-elected? This is unheard of any where in the world, what parameters do we have in place to checkmate this kind of mindset within our political elite? This calls for concern for all of us,” he said.
He is not alone, Yusuf Olayinka was even more sarcastic in his remarks, to him the demands of the politicians can only be likened to insanity, “these politicians to me are just lunatics. They talk about sharing public fund like is nothing, where an average Nigerian can not afford to eat three time a day.”
“Where degree holders will be forced to serve the country for a year (NYSC) and be kicked out after that and leave them with nothing. A country where all roads are death trap, a country where police rob innocent people of their belongings in broad day light.”
Another respondent shares Olayinka’s sentiment when he said, “this democracy is a demonstration of craziness. Lunatics are never aware of their immediate surroundings where poverty, ignorance and disease are the trade mark.”
But, M S Daura sees the demand as a challenge that all Nigerians will have to address through prayers “I call on all right thinking Nigerian to engage in prayer, may the almighty God take care of our oppressors. May them be oppressed by the lord for what they are doing to us. They are a bunch of lunatics and need to be controlled.”
In anger, Henry Stolly sees the demand as daylight robbery, describing the lawmakers as “dare devils, Constitutional robbers, greedy gluttons. Worse than this, is a silent nation consenting to this nonsense. These robbers live in affluence and luxury, whereas the majority of the populace lacks the basic amenities to live a comfortable life.”
“Oga Senator, do you think N100 million is enough? What about N500 million, or may be you guys should even be paid in dollars or pounds sterling. I foresee a revolution coming, judgement is coming and its coming fast and by the grace of God there shall be a national cleansing in the leadership. May THE ALMIGHTY GOD put zeal in the hearts of men in this nation to hasten this revolution; it is long awaited.
“Every thief in power shall not be spared. How I pray that a “Jerry Rawlings” would be born in our generation. Ah! I think enough is enough of this looting. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. I think this time their agbada don hook barbed wire. Woe betide the man or whosoever that would approve such proposal. You are proposing an increase to bribe yourselves back to power.
For Yerima Waka, “they were never voted in to office” and therefore described them as “gangsters and treasury looters,” praying that, “if they succeed in this their ungodly looting, may peace not be found in what ever they do. May God expose them to shame and disgrace and may all kind of calamities be fall them.”
Another respondent, Isacco noted that “in the abundance of water the fool is hungry.” He urged the lawmakers to go home and rethink if this period of our nascent democracy and decide whether such request is necessary.
Yinka Adedayo, said, “if this is the kind of money available to these guys, why won’t they marry 13 year olds from Egypt? This is a sick country and the more we, the citizens sit back and accept this rubbish, then the more it will continue....... It’s enough for a call to arms!! I am a pacifist, but if I think this way, then the MEND way seems to be justified.”
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gabriel Giwa-Amu, described the situation as pathetic, “the case of the Senate is a pathetic situation, people in the first place who were never elected, if you look at the spate of tribunal judgements and all that.”
“These are people who had no visible means of income before some of them rigged their way into where they are, these are people who went there determined to plunder. Do you know that when a man says that he has N50million in a decent society, it is taxable, but here you have Senators and House of Reps members who avoid taxes, who flaunt stolen money, they act with impunity and enjoy immunity.
“When Festus Keyamo made a complaint of the car scam against Bankole, what was the result, it is only recently that people are saying that that scam was actually true, meanwhile Keyamo was hounded, harassed over that matter, the death of Bola Ige nobody knows who pulled the trigger till now, so when you have a system that cannot check itself, you will still have these problems, because the psyche of the people is now programmed to going there to embezzle.
“A teacher who rigged election to become council chairman can now boast of four houses and over ten cars, because everything is tailored towards corruption, but for the forthrightness of the press, I will say even judges fear you the press, there are some judges who would have given judgements one way, but when they see the avalanche of report , they quickly pretend to be impartial, but at the end of the day, provided the judgement is what it ought to be. So it is the press, not even the EFCC or ICPC, it is the fear of being revealed that has made these institutions at least tilt towards decency, if not don’t be surprised if you hear that your Senate President goes away with N20billion, there is nothing you can do about it, but for the fear of adverse publicity,” he said.
The demand has also not gone unnoticed by the opposition, the Action Congress (AC) in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, accused the lawmakers of looting the national treasury, “and trashing the Constitution by unilaterally awarding themselves huge perks that far outweigh what was approved for them by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the only body Constitutionally-mandated to fix public officers’ pay.”
The party called on the RMAFC to speak up on the issue and the anti-graft agencies to immediately launch an investigation into it.
“The amount approved as monthly pay by RMAFC, including all allowances, for each Senator is N929,000 per month or just over N 11 million per annum. For each member of the House of Representatives, the approved amount is N917,000 per month or about N11 million per annum.
“But the lawmakers unilaterally allocated to themselves, as allowances, N27 million per quarter or N9 million monthly for each House of Representatives member, and N45 million or N15 million per month for each Senator, in addition to the amount approved by the RMAFC. It is public knowledge that they are now seeking to raise the allowance even higher.
“With the illegally-approved sums of money, each Senator will pocket N720 million in four years, while each House member will get N540 million. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Apart from being illegal, it is obscene, in a country where a huge chunk of the population lives on less than 1 US dollar per day,’’ AC said.
The party said when this over-sized perks are put side by side with the equally humongous allowances of principal officers in both chambers of the National Assembly, it is clear that the federal budget is largely being used to service our lawmakers, who are now acting like the ‘Pigs’ in the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.
“Yet-undenied media reports said Senate President David Mark gets N250 million per quarter; Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu N150 million; and each of the eight remaining principal officers N78 million. Little wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 10 years later.
“Ours must be the most expensive democracy on earth, and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the bloated salaries and allowances of our public office holders,’’ it said.
Also speaking on the vexed issue at a recent media interaction, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to discuss the issue with the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to having a proper understanding of the matter and also finding a way around it.
His words: “Not too long ago, the former chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Commission noted that the Nigerian President is the least paid President, but our late President then felt that this is not the time to increase wages and remuneration, because people will misunderstand it.”
“My self and the leadership of the National Assembly discuss from time to time at various levels informally, if this issue is becoming so topical I will again discuss with them, I also think that probably there may also be some misconception.
“I think people are looking at the total budget of the National Assembly and dividing it per head and that is a very wrong way, as if all the money they require is for them to spend for themselves, no, the National Assembly even though they are not meant to do roads, they are not meant to handle capital projects, but they furnish their offices, they buy some operational vehicles, communication equipment and things like that.
“There capital budget may not be much, but the overhead, off course they travel a lot, quite a number of their operation has to do with their oversight function, they travel out of the country, they travel within the country, they sit from Tuesdays to Thursdays, Mondays and Fridays they don’t sit, committees sit at will conducting town halls and all that, probably people are beginning to take funds for overhead as if they are funds for allowances, that is my ordinary thinking,” he said.
But, it will be noted that neither the Senate President, David Mark nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole has publicly made any statement with regards to the issue.
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2011: Nigerians angry as Senators double jumbo allowances By Patrick Okohue
Nigerians are angry; many are getting frustrated and are screaming on top of their voices. Their frustration is all geared towards the same direction. They are miffed that in a country where hunger,
lack and squalor are the order of the day, its National Assembly seem to be insensitive to their plight.
Their outrage stems from recent report from the upper chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate, where Senators are demanding for an upward review of their basic allowance from N43Million quarterly to a staggering N100 Million each, to enable them tackle perceived and real opponents ahead of the 2011 general elections.
Many Nigerians are saying that what the take home of the Senators presently is outrageous, yet the lawmakers seem not content and are asking for more.
Many are now asking the rationale for Senators asking for so much. Speaking on the demand, a concerned Nigerian said, “the lawmakers care more for themselves than the masses that voted them into power, I wonder if we have sat down to access the performance of the Senators so far, how many bills have they passed that have enhanced the lives of the masses that voted them, how many of them really know their senatorial district, how many of them do go home to know how their people are faring.”
“They are all in Abuja, buying land in Abuja, building houses in Abuja and looking for areas to invest and even outside the country, it is very unfortunate and if I have my way I will say let all of them go and face the EFCC, because they don’t have anything to offer, can you compare what they are demanding to the number of bills they have passed on education, now education is going down every day and nobody cares about that.”
That only represents the feeling of many Nigerians who are concerned about the type of representation they get, but the Senators are not disturbed by the outrage, provided they can get what they feel belongs to them, because according them, the House of Representatives have already shared theirs, why not the Senate.
According to a source, the Senators quest is in line with their findings that members of the House of Representatives are being well financially rewarded by their leadership and have wondered why that same cannot also happen in the Senate.
In a text message that went round among Senators, the arrow head in the push for the allowance increment is called on his colleagues to put pressure on the leadership of the Senate to increase the allowance of members because “this is election year.”
According to the text message: “My distinguished, each member in the House of Representatives has improved earnings from N25million to N43Million. This is an improvement of forty percent. Reps members are also getting on Prado 4 by 4. This is election year. We should rise up and demand from the leadership what is due us. Our entitlement in the budget is nothing less than N100Million per Senator. David Mark leadership will open up if we request for it. N100 million or nothing”.
If the proposal sails through as expected, it means the Senators would be sharing the sum of N10.9 Billion from the nation’s treasury. These figures do not include non-regular allowances—vehicle loan, furniture allowance, estacode, duty tour allowance and severance gratuity—which are paid separately to each legislator as they become due.
The present demand will make each Senator to be entitled to N100 million per quarter and N300million per annum, each principal officer will be entitled to N450 million, Deputy Senate President N600 million and Senate President N900 million per annum.
This is coming on the heels of alleged recent increase in the allowances of members of the House of Representatives from N25 Million to almost N40 Million from the same source, representing the sum N14 Billion shared by the lawmakers.
According to remuneration package released in 2009 by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy will receive N11 million in basic salaries and regular allowances every year while a member of the House of Representatives will get N9.9 million. Previously, a senator was getting N17 million while a House member was collecting N14.99 million.
The new agitation by the senators for an upward allowance review is not in line with the remuneration package prepared by the RMAFC.
An analyst wondered why the lawmakers will deceive Nigerians, making them believe that they conceded to a reduction in their remuneration last year because of the hardship in the system, only to turn around to demand what is far in excess of what they conceded.
Sources within the Senate noted that already some members have started mobilizing their colleagues to arm twist the Senate leadership to approve the increment.
A Senator from a North Central state is said to be leading the pack of Senators making the demand.
According to findings, quarterly allocation to each member of the House of Representatives has increased from about N25Million to close to N40 Million in the last three years while those of senators have remained in the neighborhood of between N35 million to N45 Million within the same period.
Putting it in perspective, another concerned Nigerian, Andrew Pinneh while responding to an online news report on the issue noted, “we have to put things in perspective first and try and understand the kind of politics we are building and encouraging in Nigeria, whether we are promoting good governance that supports the rule of law and order or we are promoting political decadence or political industry?”
“You see the country we had fashioned our democracy after does not pay as much as what our House of Representatives and the Senate are currently being paid. Currently, the file and rank of the US Senate and House take home a year is $174,000 (N26,274,000), the Majority and Minority leader $193,400 (N29, 203,400) and the Speaker $223,500 (N33,748,500).
“Compare this figures with what our own House and Senate are asking for. Mind you all other benefits paid to these guys are in line with the federal civil service scheme, which is similar to our own civil service. How much does a Permanent Secretary or top civil servants take home a year in Nigeria? Is this in line with what these politicians are asking for? Are we supposed to use the taxpayer’s money to induce party polity and campaign or they are supposed to source their funding by themselves! It is a shame for our dear nation the way the polity is playing out.
“In the UK, a Member of Parliament takes home a year £64,766 (N14, 896,180) about half of what its Nigerian counterpart is receiving. In fact, the Nigerian political office holders are about the most highly paid. But how do we benchmark their performance in relation to their counterpart around the world, we can say that the comparison is infinitesimal to their colleagues around the globe. The results speak for itself.
“We need to ask ourselves, how credible and capable are these politicians seeking re-election for 2011; we all need to draw a checklist of their performance and evaluate to see how many of them are actually capable or credible of being re-elected to the House or Senate. Can you imagine some of them seeking pay rise to help them get re-elected? This is unheard of any where in the world, what parameters do we have in place to checkmate this kind of mindset within our political elite? This calls for concern for all of us,” he said.
He is not alone, Yusuf Olayinka was even more sarcastic in his remarks, to him the demands of the politicians can only be likened to insanity, “these politicians to me are just lunatics. They talk about sharing public fund like is nothing, where an average Nigerian can not afford to eat three time a day.”
“Where degree holders will be forced to serve the country for a year (NYSC) and be kicked out after that and leave them with nothing. A country where all roads are death trap, a country where police rob innocent people of their belongings in broad day light.”
Another respondent shares Olayinka’s sentiment when he said, “this democracy is a demonstration of craziness. Lunatics are never aware of their immediate surroundings where poverty, ignorance and disease are the trade mark.”
But, M S Daura sees the demand as a challenge that all Nigerians will have to address through prayers “I call on all right thinking Nigerian to engage in prayer, may the almighty God take care of our oppressors. May them be oppressed by the lord for what they are doing to us. They are a bunch of lunatics and need to be controlled.”
In anger, Henry Stolly sees the demand as daylight robbery, describing the lawmakers as “dare devils, Constitutional robbers, greedy gluttons. Worse than this, is a silent nation consenting to this nonsense. These robbers live in affluence and luxury, whereas the majority of the populace lacks the basic amenities to live a comfortable life.”
“Oga Senator, do you think N100 million is enough? What about N500 million, or may be you guys should even be paid in dollars or pounds sterling. I foresee a revolution coming, judgement is coming and its coming fast and by the grace of God there shall be a national cleansing in the leadership. May THE ALMIGHTY GOD put zeal in the hearts of men in this nation to hasten this revolution; it is long awaited.
“Every thief in power shall not be spared. How I pray that a “Jerry Rawlings” would be born in our generation. Ah! I think enough is enough of this looting. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. I think this time their agbada don hook barbed wire. Woe betide the man or whosoever that would approve such proposal. You are proposing an increase to bribe yourselves back to power.
For Yerima Waka, “they were never voted in to office” and therefore described them as “gangsters and treasury looters,” praying that, “if they succeed in this their ungodly looting, may peace not be found in what ever they do. May God expose them to shame and disgrace and may all kind of calamities be fall them.”
Another respondent, Isacco noted that “in the abundance of water the fool is hungry.” He urged the lawmakers to go home and rethink if this period of our nascent democracy and decide whether such request is necessary.
Yinka Adedayo, said, “if this is the kind of money available to these guys, why won’t they marry 13 year olds from Egypt? This is a sick country and the more we, the citizens sit back and accept this rubbish, then the more it will continue....... It’s enough for a call to arms!! I am a pacifist, but if I think this way, then the MEND way seems to be justified.”
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gabriel Giwa-Amu, described the situation as pathetic, “the case of the Senate is a pathetic situation, people in the first place who were never elected, if you look at the spate of tribunal judgements and all that.”
“These are people who had no visible means of income before some of them rigged their way into where they are, these are people who went there determined to plunder. Do you know that when a man says that he has N50million in a decent society, it is taxable, but here you have Senators and House of Reps members who avoid taxes, who flaunt stolen money, they act with impunity and enjoy immunity.
“When Festus Keyamo made a complaint of the car scam against Bankole, what was the result, it is only recently that people are saying that that scam was actually true, meanwhile Keyamo was hounded, harassed over that matter, the death of Bola Ige nobody knows who pulled the trigger till now, so when you have a system that cannot check itself, you will still have these problems, because the psyche of the people is now programmed to going there to embezzle.
“A teacher who rigged election to become council chairman can now boast of four houses and over ten cars, because everything is tailored towards corruption, but for the forthrightness of the press, I will say even judges fear you the press, there are some judges who would have given judgements one way, but when they see the avalanche of report , they quickly pretend to be impartial, but at the end of the day, provided the judgement is what it ought to be. So it is the press, not even the EFCC or ICPC, it is the fear of being revealed that has made these institutions at least tilt towards decency, if not don’t be surprised if you hear that your Senate President goes away with N20billion, there is nothing you can do about it, but for the fear of adverse publicity,” he said.
The demand has also not gone unnoticed by the opposition, the Action Congress (AC) in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, accused the lawmakers of looting the national treasury, “and trashing the Constitution by unilaterally awarding themselves huge perks that far outweigh what was approved for them by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the only body Constitutionally-mandated to fix public officers’ pay.”
The party called on the RMAFC to speak up on the issue and the anti-graft agencies to immediately launch an investigation into it.
“The amount approved as monthly pay by RMAFC, including all allowances, for each Senator is N929,000 per month or just over N 11 million per annum. For each member of the House of Representatives, the approved amount is N917,000 per month or about N11 million per annum.
“But the lawmakers unilaterally allocated to themselves, as allowances, N27 million per quarter or N9 million monthly for each House of Representatives member, and N45 million or N15 million per month for each Senator, in addition to the amount approved by the RMAFC. It is public knowledge that they are now seeking to raise the allowance even higher.
“With the illegally-approved sums of money, each Senator will pocket N720 million in four years, while each House member will get N540 million. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Apart from being illegal, it is obscene, in a country where a huge chunk of the population lives on less than 1 US dollar per day,’’ AC said.
The party said when this over-sized perks are put side by side with the equally humongous allowances of principal officers in both chambers of the National Assembly, it is clear that the federal budget is largely being used to service our lawmakers, who are now acting like the ‘Pigs’ in the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.
“Yet-undenied media reports said Senate President David Mark gets N250 million per quarter; Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu N150 million; and each of the eight remaining principal officers N78 million. Little wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 10 years later.
“Ours must be the most expensive democracy on earth, and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the bloated salaries and allowances of our public office holders,’’ it said.
Also speaking on the vexed issue at a recent media interaction, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to discuss the issue with the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to having a proper understanding of the matter and also finding a way around it.
His words: “Not too long ago, the former chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Commission noted that the Nigerian President is the least paid President, but our late President then felt that this is not the time to increase wages and remuneration, because people will misunderstand it.”
“My self and the leadership of the National Assembly discuss from time to time at various levels informally, if this issue is becoming so topical I will again discuss with them, I also think that probably there may also be some misconception.
“I think people are looking at the total budget of the National Assembly and dividing it per head and that is a very wrong way, as if all the money they require is for them to spend for themselves, no, the National Assembly even though they are not meant to do roads, they are not meant to handle capital projects, but they furnish their offices, they buy some operational vehicles, communication equipment and things like that.
“There capital budget may not be much, but the overhead, off course they travel a lot, quite a number of their operation has to do with their oversight function, they travel out of the country, they travel within the country, they sit from Tuesdays to Thursdays, Mondays and Fridays they don’t sit, committees sit at will conducting town halls and all that, probably people are beginning to take funds for overhead as if they are funds for allowances, that is my ordinary thinking,” he said.
But, it will be noted that neither the Senate President, David Mark nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole has publicly made any statement with regards to the issue.
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jcomments.setList('comments-list');
lack and squalor are the order of the day, its National Assembly seem to be insensitive to their plight.
Their outrage stems from recent report from the upper chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate, where Senators are demanding for an upward review of their basic allowance from N43Million quarterly to a staggering N100 Million each, to enable them tackle perceived and real opponents ahead of the 2011 general elections.
Many Nigerians are saying that what the take home of the Senators presently is outrageous, yet the lawmakers seem not content and are asking for more.
Many are now asking the rationale for Senators asking for so much. Speaking on the demand, a concerned Nigerian said, “the lawmakers care more for themselves than the masses that voted them into power, I wonder if we have sat down to access the performance of the Senators so far, how many bills have they passed that have enhanced the lives of the masses that voted them, how many of them really know their senatorial district, how many of them do go home to know how their people are faring.”
“They are all in Abuja, buying land in Abuja, building houses in Abuja and looking for areas to invest and even outside the country, it is very unfortunate and if I have my way I will say let all of them go and face the EFCC, because they don’t have anything to offer, can you compare what they are demanding to the number of bills they have passed on education, now education is going down every day and nobody cares about that.”
That only represents the feeling of many Nigerians who are concerned about the type of representation they get, but the Senators are not disturbed by the outrage, provided they can get what they feel belongs to them, because according them, the House of Representatives have already shared theirs, why not the Senate.
According to a source, the Senators quest is in line with their findings that members of the House of Representatives are being well financially rewarded by their leadership and have wondered why that same cannot also happen in the Senate.
In a text message that went round among Senators, the arrow head in the push for the allowance increment is called on his colleagues to put pressure on the leadership of the Senate to increase the allowance of members because “this is election year.”
According to the text message: “My distinguished, each member in the House of Representatives has improved earnings from N25million to N43Million. This is an improvement of forty percent. Reps members are also getting on Prado 4 by 4. This is election year. We should rise up and demand from the leadership what is due us. Our entitlement in the budget is nothing less than N100Million per Senator. David Mark leadership will open up if we request for it. N100 million or nothing”.
If the proposal sails through as expected, it means the Senators would be sharing the sum of N10.9 Billion from the nation’s treasury. These figures do not include non-regular allowances—vehicle loan, furniture allowance, estacode, duty tour allowance and severance gratuity—which are paid separately to each legislator as they become due.
The present demand will make each Senator to be entitled to N100 million per quarter and N300million per annum, each principal officer will be entitled to N450 million, Deputy Senate President N600 million and Senate President N900 million per annum.
This is coming on the heels of alleged recent increase in the allowances of members of the House of Representatives from N25 Million to almost N40 Million from the same source, representing the sum N14 Billion shared by the lawmakers.
According to remuneration package released in 2009 by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy will receive N11 million in basic salaries and regular allowances every year while a member of the House of Representatives will get N9.9 million. Previously, a senator was getting N17 million while a House member was collecting N14.99 million.
The new agitation by the senators for an upward allowance review is not in line with the remuneration package prepared by the RMAFC.
An analyst wondered why the lawmakers will deceive Nigerians, making them believe that they conceded to a reduction in their remuneration last year because of the hardship in the system, only to turn around to demand what is far in excess of what they conceded.
Sources within the Senate noted that already some members have started mobilizing their colleagues to arm twist the Senate leadership to approve the increment.
A Senator from a North Central state is said to be leading the pack of Senators making the demand.
According to findings, quarterly allocation to each member of the House of Representatives has increased from about N25Million to close to N40 Million in the last three years while those of senators have remained in the neighborhood of between N35 million to N45 Million within the same period.
Putting it in perspective, another concerned Nigerian, Andrew Pinneh while responding to an online news report on the issue noted, “we have to put things in perspective first and try and understand the kind of politics we are building and encouraging in Nigeria, whether we are promoting good governance that supports the rule of law and order or we are promoting political decadence or political industry?”
“You see the country we had fashioned our democracy after does not pay as much as what our House of Representatives and the Senate are currently being paid. Currently, the file and rank of the US Senate and House take home a year is $174,000 (N26,274,000), the Majority and Minority leader $193,400 (N29, 203,400) and the Speaker $223,500 (N33,748,500).
“Compare this figures with what our own House and Senate are asking for. Mind you all other benefits paid to these guys are in line with the federal civil service scheme, which is similar to our own civil service. How much does a Permanent Secretary or top civil servants take home a year in Nigeria? Is this in line with what these politicians are asking for? Are we supposed to use the taxpayer’s money to induce party polity and campaign or they are supposed to source their funding by themselves! It is a shame for our dear nation the way the polity is playing out.
“In the UK, a Member of Parliament takes home a year £64,766 (N14, 896,180) about half of what its Nigerian counterpart is receiving. In fact, the Nigerian political office holders are about the most highly paid. But how do we benchmark their performance in relation to their counterpart around the world, we can say that the comparison is infinitesimal to their colleagues around the globe. The results speak for itself.
“We need to ask ourselves, how credible and capable are these politicians seeking re-election for 2011; we all need to draw a checklist of their performance and evaluate to see how many of them are actually capable or credible of being re-elected to the House or Senate. Can you imagine some of them seeking pay rise to help them get re-elected? This is unheard of any where in the world, what parameters do we have in place to checkmate this kind of mindset within our political elite? This calls for concern for all of us,” he said.
He is not alone, Yusuf Olayinka was even more sarcastic in his remarks, to him the demands of the politicians can only be likened to insanity, “these politicians to me are just lunatics. They talk about sharing public fund like is nothing, where an average Nigerian can not afford to eat three time a day.”
“Where degree holders will be forced to serve the country for a year (NYSC) and be kicked out after that and leave them with nothing. A country where all roads are death trap, a country where police rob innocent people of their belongings in broad day light.”
Another respondent shares Olayinka’s sentiment when he said, “this democracy is a demonstration of craziness. Lunatics are never aware of their immediate surroundings where poverty, ignorance and disease are the trade mark.”
But, M S Daura sees the demand as a challenge that all Nigerians will have to address through prayers “I call on all right thinking Nigerian to engage in prayer, may the almighty God take care of our oppressors. May them be oppressed by the lord for what they are doing to us. They are a bunch of lunatics and need to be controlled.”
In anger, Henry Stolly sees the demand as daylight robbery, describing the lawmakers as “dare devils, Constitutional robbers, greedy gluttons. Worse than this, is a silent nation consenting to this nonsense. These robbers live in affluence and luxury, whereas the majority of the populace lacks the basic amenities to live a comfortable life.”
“Oga Senator, do you think N100 million is enough? What about N500 million, or may be you guys should even be paid in dollars or pounds sterling. I foresee a revolution coming, judgement is coming and its coming fast and by the grace of God there shall be a national cleansing in the leadership. May THE ALMIGHTY GOD put zeal in the hearts of men in this nation to hasten this revolution; it is long awaited.
“Every thief in power shall not be spared. How I pray that a “Jerry Rawlings” would be born in our generation. Ah! I think enough is enough of this looting. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. I think this time their agbada don hook barbed wire. Woe betide the man or whosoever that would approve such proposal. You are proposing an increase to bribe yourselves back to power.
For Yerima Waka, “they were never voted in to office” and therefore described them as “gangsters and treasury looters,” praying that, “if they succeed in this their ungodly looting, may peace not be found in what ever they do. May God expose them to shame and disgrace and may all kind of calamities be fall them.”
Another respondent, Isacco noted that “in the abundance of water the fool is hungry.” He urged the lawmakers to go home and rethink if this period of our nascent democracy and decide whether such request is necessary.
Yinka Adedayo, said, “if this is the kind of money available to these guys, why won’t they marry 13 year olds from Egypt? This is a sick country and the more we, the citizens sit back and accept this rubbish, then the more it will continue....... It’s enough for a call to arms!! I am a pacifist, but if I think this way, then the MEND way seems to be justified.”
Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gabriel Giwa-Amu, described the situation as pathetic, “the case of the Senate is a pathetic situation, people in the first place who were never elected, if you look at the spate of tribunal judgements and all that.”
“These are people who had no visible means of income before some of them rigged their way into where they are, these are people who went there determined to plunder. Do you know that when a man says that he has N50million in a decent society, it is taxable, but here you have Senators and House of Reps members who avoid taxes, who flaunt stolen money, they act with impunity and enjoy immunity.
“When Festus Keyamo made a complaint of the car scam against Bankole, what was the result, it is only recently that people are saying that that scam was actually true, meanwhile Keyamo was hounded, harassed over that matter, the death of Bola Ige nobody knows who pulled the trigger till now, so when you have a system that cannot check itself, you will still have these problems, because the psyche of the people is now programmed to going there to embezzle.
“A teacher who rigged election to become council chairman can now boast of four houses and over ten cars, because everything is tailored towards corruption, but for the forthrightness of the press, I will say even judges fear you the press, there are some judges who would have given judgements one way, but when they see the avalanche of report , they quickly pretend to be impartial, but at the end of the day, provided the judgement is what it ought to be. So it is the press, not even the EFCC or ICPC, it is the fear of being revealed that has made these institutions at least tilt towards decency, if not don’t be surprised if you hear that your Senate President goes away with N20billion, there is nothing you can do about it, but for the fear of adverse publicity,” he said.
The demand has also not gone unnoticed by the opposition, the Action Congress (AC) in a release signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, accused the lawmakers of looting the national treasury, “and trashing the Constitution by unilaterally awarding themselves huge perks that far outweigh what was approved for them by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the only body Constitutionally-mandated to fix public officers’ pay.”
The party called on the RMAFC to speak up on the issue and the anti-graft agencies to immediately launch an investigation into it.
“The amount approved as monthly pay by RMAFC, including all allowances, for each Senator is N929,000 per month or just over N 11 million per annum. For each member of the House of Representatives, the approved amount is N917,000 per month or about N11 million per annum.
“But the lawmakers unilaterally allocated to themselves, as allowances, N27 million per quarter or N9 million monthly for each House of Representatives member, and N45 million or N15 million per month for each Senator, in addition to the amount approved by the RMAFC. It is public knowledge that they are now seeking to raise the allowance even higher.
“With the illegally-approved sums of money, each Senator will pocket N720 million in four years, while each House member will get N540 million. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Apart from being illegal, it is obscene, in a country where a huge chunk of the population lives on less than 1 US dollar per day,’’ AC said.
The party said when this over-sized perks are put side by side with the equally humongous allowances of principal officers in both chambers of the National Assembly, it is clear that the federal budget is largely being used to service our lawmakers, who are now acting like the ‘Pigs’ in the book ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell.
“Yet-undenied media reports said Senate President David Mark gets N250 million per quarter; Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu N150 million; and each of the eight remaining principal officers N78 million. Little wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 10 years later.
“Ours must be the most expensive democracy on earth, and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the bloated salaries and allowances of our public office holders,’’ it said.
Also speaking on the vexed issue at a recent media interaction, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to discuss the issue with the leadership of the National Assembly with a view to having a proper understanding of the matter and also finding a way around it.
His words: “Not too long ago, the former chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Commission noted that the Nigerian President is the least paid President, but our late President then felt that this is not the time to increase wages and remuneration, because people will misunderstand it.”
“My self and the leadership of the National Assembly discuss from time to time at various levels informally, if this issue is becoming so topical I will again discuss with them, I also think that probably there may also be some misconception.
“I think people are looking at the total budget of the National Assembly and dividing it per head and that is a very wrong way, as if all the money they require is for them to spend for themselves, no, the National Assembly even though they are not meant to do roads, they are not meant to handle capital projects, but they furnish their offices, they buy some operational vehicles, communication equipment and things like that.
“There capital budget may not be much, but the overhead, off course they travel a lot, quite a number of their operation has to do with their oversight function, they travel out of the country, they travel within the country, they sit from Tuesdays to Thursdays, Mondays and Fridays they don’t sit, committees sit at will conducting town halls and all that, probably people are beginning to take funds for overhead as if they are funds for allowances, that is my ordinary thinking,” he said.
But, it will be noted that neither the Senate President, David Mark nor the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole has publicly made any statement with regards to the issue.
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Monday, January 25, 2010
'This House' By Koya Oyagbola
It is time to see Nigeria for what it is – a big house. How many of you would countenance someone coming into your living room to urinate and defecate? How many of you would allow yourselves to be bribed with a light bulb from a house when the whole house belongs to you? Then why would you allow someone to buy your vote? Why would you allow someone to exploit you? Don’t you know the whole of Nigeria is your house? Can’t you see that? It’s time you all started to hold this house in high esteem because for all I’ve said so far, I’m less concerned about past privations I’ve faced. I’m less concerned about the ingratitude my mother and other members of my family have experienced. What really concerns me is what it says about this house called Nigeria. If people as accomplished as my mother can face such difficulties and if a son from such a family can face such struggles, what hope is there for the humble subsistence farmer and how many fledgling Einsteins, Flemings, Goethes have we deprived of faith and trust before their geniuses could take root? How many more Koya-Oyagbolas are we stifling and trying to snuff out with our indifference even now as their geniuses struggle to take root? Unless you wish to spend your life in a desert it’s time for every single Nigerian to stand up and say, there will be no more incivility, no more neglect, no more anguish in this house. It’s time Nigerians stood up to those of little faith who attempt to urinate and defecate in this house’s living room...
FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE: http://koyaoyagbola.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/this-house/
FOR COMPLETE ARTICLE SEE: http://koyaoyagbola.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/this-house/
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