Since the inception of the Fourth Republic, Nigerians have had the National Assembly inaugurated six times with seven senate presidents. Late senator Evan Enwerem lasted just about five months, June 3, 1999-Nov. 18, 1999; late senator Chuba Okadigbo was the president of the senate between Nov. 1999- 2000; senator Pius Anyim took over from 2000-2003. Adolphus Wabara came on board from 2003-2005; Ken Nnamani stayed from 2005-2007; from where David Mark took it from 2007-2015 and now Bukola Saraki from 2015 to hopefully 2019.
With the exception of Senator David Mark’s tenure, all the other ex senate presidents were either impeached or resigned for one reason or another related to bribery and corruption. They have passed the lowest number of people oriented bills more than their other counterparts around the world and according to the London Economist, are the costliest maintained legislature in the world.
With their number totalling 469 members, they have consumed more than N1.5 trillion since 2005 with nothing to show for it, either in their constituencies or in their oversight functions. In view of eliminating this waste of resources in the National Assembly, this write up wish to apply Ockham’s Razor in the NASS for proper efficiency and effective running of it, so that it can move from its anti development structure to be pro development.
WASTE OF RESOURCES IN THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
With the raging plague of endemic corruption in our society, where materialism is glorified, adored and even canonized, where wealth and its brazen display has become the god of worship in all facet of the Nigerian society; where honour lies in money, most Nigerians are oriented towards the accumulation of things not for their needs but for their greed. And since greed is insatiable, we continue to accumulate and accumulate beyond the perimeter of common sense, thereby denying others their means of livelihood.
With this mentality, the average NASS member who yesterday is struggling to finish a six bedroom bungalow, now have mansions all over the country. How?
The NASS began by tailoring all legislation for self serving purposes encompassing wasteful, extravagant and most times thoroughly useless projects to themselves at the detriment of the national development. They do this in various ways:
First, non execution of constituency projects: What is constituency project? These are projects that the NASS members are expected to do for their people, since they are adjudged to know better the needs of their constituency. This can come in varying degrees ranging from construction of roads, bridges, hospitals, pipe born water etc. It may come as youth empowerment, opening skill acquisition centres, agricultural loans or subsidies or it may take the form of sponsoring scholarships, setting up sports competitions, curbing violence by providing meaningful jobs through micro businesses and other related activities.
But the truth is that Majority of the NASS members have failed woefully in this aspect. They give most of these projects to agencies or agents which they’ve hitherto struck a deal with and while the full payment for the project is made, the money directly or indirectly salt back into the private account of the NASS members since there is no one to actually act as an oversight agent to see if the said projects are actually accomplished or not. According to Senator Shehu Sani, “The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every Senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million.”[1]
Secondly, in their oversight function of passing federal budget. During this function, the NASS members pad budgets, hike some for ministries, departments and agencies and unilaterally insert projects that are never meant to be executed. The reason for this is that such ministries or agencies/departments give them back those padded money and hiked fees through contracts at whatever percentage they have hitherto agreed upon, such projects are never executed.
According to the revelation made by former House of Representative Appropriation Committee chairman, Dr. Abdulmimin Jibrin, the National Assembly pads the budget yearly and in 2016 in particular, 2000 nonexistent projects were arbitrarily inserted by less than ten Committee Chairmen without knowledge of their committee members and Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker was part of the mess. According to Jibrin, House Leadership shared N10 billion among themselves as “office running costs,” a subhead they have used to pocket illegal allowances.[2] He gave a breakdown of how the money was shared:
“Speaker Dogara, N1.5 billion; Deputy Speaker Yusuf Lasun, N1.2 billion; Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, N1.2 billion; his deputy, Buba Jibril, N1.2 billion; House Whip, Alhassan Doguwa, N1.2 billion; his deputy Pally Iriase, N700 million; Minority Leader PDP’s Leo Ogar, N800 million; Minority Whip, Yakubu Barde, N700 million; Deputy Minority Whip Binta Bello N700 million. According to Jibrin, this waste of funds is “the sole unifying force for the 360-member House. Most of the members use it to acquire properties, cars, and live a life of luxury they have never lived before coming to the House.” Now the waste in the National Assembly is simply un-condonable. According to Lewis Obi, “So far N480 billion of padding has been identified for the 469-member legislature, apparently, so members get a billion apiece.”[3]
Apropos to these unilateral insertion of wasteful and never to be executed projects in the budget, the NASS members tend to extort money from both serving and prospective ministers and Head of Agencies that fall within their purview to act as oversight agents. Each minister or head of agency is expected to pay as much as N50 million before his appointment will be confirmed to be effective. In 2004, the current governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai revealed that N54 million was demanded of him to confirm his appointment as FCT minister.[4] In 2005, the N55 million bribe given to senate president Adolphus Wabara led to his resignation. In 2010, the $3 million bribe demanded by Farouk Lawal committee that was set up to investigate chief Otedola $285 million waste of the country’s resources burst into the open after Lawal admitted collecting the money.[5]
Furthermore, as the Economist Magazine noted, the “patronage economy” encourages legislators to create ever more government agencies which they can use to provide jobs to pals, says Cheta Nwanze of SBM Intelligence, a research firm. Many simply duplicate work that other agencies are already doing. One local newspaper found that the national parliament was in the process of creating 25 new federal agencies. Among them was a National Council for Research and Development, a National Research and Innovation Foundation, a National Research and Innovation Council and Federal Entrepreneurship Centres across the country. As if that were not enough, it is also creating a Chartered Institute for Entrepreneurs.[6]
Another brazen unchecked waste of fund in the NASS is their salaries and emoluments which are shrouded in secrecy for more than 17 years and which Lewis Obi described as the, “best secret conspiracy involving such a large group in history.” The Economist magazine revealed that Nigeria federal legislators, with a basic salary of $189,500.00 per annum (N30.6m), are the highest paid lawmakers in the world. It looked at the lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product per person across the world. According to the report, the basic salary (which excludes despicable allowances); of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600.00.[7]
In another report, the 469 federal lawmakers (109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives) cost Nigeria over N76 billion on annual salaries, allowances and quarterly payments. Each member of the 54 standing Senate committee, receives a monthly imprest of between N648 million and N972 million per year, while, a member of the House of Representative receives N35 million or N140 million as quarterly or yearly allowances; which means conservatively the 25 per cent of the overhead of the nation’s budget goes to the NASS.[8]
Femi Ajayi who is a Professor of Policy, Management & Conflict Resolution, Babcock University, Ilishan, analysis of the Economist report of the salaries and emoluments of NASS members as at 2013 is so profoundly revealing and so prescient that it is worth quoting at some length:
- The Basic Salary is N2,484,245.50;
- Hardship Allowance: 50% of Basic Salary = N1,242,122.75;
- Constituency Allowance: 200% of BS = N4,968,509.00;
- Furniture Allowance: 300% of BS = N7,452,736.50;
- Newspaper Allowance: 50% = N1,242,122.70;
- Wardrobe Allowance: 25% = N621,061.37;
- Recess Allowance: 10% = N248,424.55;
- Accommodation: 200% = N4,968,509.00;
- Utilities: 30% = N828,081.83;
- Domestic Staff: 35% = N863,184.12;
- Entertainment: 30% = N828,081.83;
- Personal Assistance: 25% = N621,061.37;
- Vehicle Maintenance Allowance: 75% = N1,863,184.12;
- Leave Allowance: 10% = N248,424.55;
- Severance Gratuity: 300% = N7,452,736.50;
- Motor Vehicle Allowance: 400% of BS = N9,936,982.00;
- Total per month = N29, 479, 749.00 [$190,192.00].
In effect a Senator earns N498, 630.13 a day, which a University Professor does not make in a month; N20, 776.28 per hour; and N346.27 per minute. A member of the House of Representatives earns N347, 945.00 per day, N14, 497.00 per hour and N241.00 per minute. In other words, a Senator’s daily pay is two times more than the annual pay of the least paid Nigerian worker, with the House of Representatives stands at the monthly pay of the least paid Nigerian worker is slightly above the hourly pay of a member of the House of Representatives. In addition, Nigeria Senators and House of Representatives members are entitled to N500, 000.00 per night for their local trips.”[9]
In comparison with other developed countries legislators salaries and the percentage to their minimum wage, Professor Femi Ajayi equally noted, “The minimum wage in the United States is $1, 257 (N191, 667.00) and a US lawmaker earns $15,080.00 (N2.3m) per month. In the United Kingdom, a lawmaker earns $8,686.00(N1.3m) monthly while the gross national minimum wage is $1,883.00 (N283, 333.00) per month. Thus, the percentage of a UK lawmaker’s pay, that is the salary of the least paid UK worker is 21.68 per cent. In France, the minimum wage is $1,805.00 (N275, 433.00) per month and a legislator earns $6,754.00 (N1.03m) monthly. Thus the least paid worker in France earns 26.73 per cent of the pay of a lawmaker in that country as against Nigeria’s 0.13 per cent/ 0.18 per cent.”[10] In fact the average salary of each senator can pay the approximate salary of 1,611 civil servants per month at minimum wage rate of N18,000 per month.
All these were corroborated by the report of The Chairman Presidential Anti Corruption Team Professor Itsay Sagay when he said, “From the information I have gathered, a Nigerian Senator earns about N29m a month and over N3bn a year.”[11]
Thus, the Nigerian National Assembly constitutes the most wasted and wasteful legislature in the world. They have made personal aggrandizement the first article of their faith and the last article of their creed. For them Nigeria politics is a lucrative carnival where they as protagonists come together to plunder the nation at will delivering excruciating suffering to their constituent in alarming proportion, a combination and culmination of ineptitude and waste.
Over several decades, these unproductive leeches stole and hoarded the country’s assests. Nigeria’s contemptible legislators have not only made a sport of eating their from their constituents who are are hungry, their voracious gluttony actually amounted to eating their constituents thereby abetting the development of their constituency. They live in bubble disconnected from the grim realities of the life of their constituents and have unwittingly consecrated an ethos of mediocrity with no recognized boundaries when it comes to wasting public resources.
APPLICATION OF OCKHAM’S RAZOR IN THE LEGISLATURE
Having identified that the huge amount of money flooded into the National Assembly has been nothing but waste for over 18years. It has constituted an insult to the fact that “Politics” as Nnamdi Azikiwe rightly noted, “is only a means to an end, an end which is more glorious than politics itself; although the means glorifies the individual but the end secures the social good and right for the people.”[12] This research study relying on Ockham’s principle that excesses should not be provided without necessity proposes the following:
- The National Assembly should be defunded by over 70%. The cost of legislative governance will then be less attractive. The resources accrued from such exercise should be diverted to giving grants to universities to fund basic scientific research in green energy, stem cell research, cure to all preventable and treatable diseases caused by the environment with clear timeline to come up with meaningful results. The gains from scientific researches are very high, it will reduce poverty of the mind such that many young people with skills and creative vision will be more able to engage in scientific activities to keep pace with the rest of the developmental world, producing and solving problems with computer aided designs in health sectors and technological sectors that we have over the years relied on the West for solution at an exorbitant prices.
- De-mystification of the secrecy surrounding the salaries and emoluments of Nigerian legislators. Their basic earnings and other emoluments should be made public. More importantly, their list of emoluments need pruning. Of what use is hardship allowance, wardrobe allowance, leave allowance, recess allowance, etc? All these amount to explication of frivolities and trivialities for the sole purpose of waste of resources. The money gotten by the pruning of the Legislative thriftlessness called allowances should go directly into social security and welfare for the unrestricted access to basics by the “least among us”, the unemployed, the sick, pensioners etc. This welfare and social security packages are to be chaired by non-governmental organisations like credible motherless babies homes, Charitable Agencies etc.
- Since the antecedent and precedent of NASS members with regard to Constituency Projects can be described as nothing but “Legiswasting”, with the N100bn been devoted to it yearly without result, constituency projects should be scrapped and such humongous money be assigned to private companies for the unrestricted provision of basics. Private companies that deal with electricity should be aided with the money to Partner with Technological Institutes and Universities to harness new technologies and alternative means of energy to maintain steady power supply. Companies devoted to agriculture and aquaculture should be assisted with such funds to partner with Agricultural Colleges.
- A mechanism should be designed so as to eliminate fraudsters, drug barons, certificate forgers and people with questionable characters from ever becoming members of the hallowed chambers of the legislative assembly. The truth is that when such people get to the NASS, they guzzle money in abandoned recklessness and make legislations that insults human dignity, encourage subhuman living condition for the majority and violates the ethics of public accountability. To this end Pius Adesanmi once observed that “the National Assembly has been Nigeria’s most notorious assembly of integrity-challenged and irresponsible graspers since 1999. It is also the retirement home of retired looters from the Executive. If you are looking for the highest number of indicted Africans in one single room go to Nigeria’s National Assembly.”[13]
- The NASS must meet up with the “signs of the times”, technological and scientific equipments should be install in the National Assembly, for instance electronic parliament where they can vote on issues online and save the administrative cost of constantly converging together, of which most of them are usually absent. In addition to that, there should be an up to date website with statistical replays where constituents can assess information on how their representative vote on key issues and the number of bills sponsored for the development of their constituency so as to determine accurately whether such representative is worthy of the name or should be recalled. More so, there should be a communication system which should include functional website, Facebook page, twitter handles, emails, and intercom systems to track members activities and communicate with him/her often of the need of their constituents. This is because as experts in social communication have noted, personal contact is most effective when information need to be passed to public officials.
SirPeter Aloh
(and his project, 2018)
[1] http://saharareporters.com/2018/03/07/nigerian-senators-receive-n135-million-running-cost-every-month-shehu-sani
[2] http://www.pulse.ng/news/local/abdulmumin-jibrin-ex-appropriation-committee-chairman-calls-for-speakers-resignation-id5292498.html
[3]LEWIS OBI, Dissolve the National Assembly—Sun newspaper, 4th August 2016
[4] http://allafrica.com/stories/200310130451.html
[5] https://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/06/3m-bribery-scandal-farouk-lawan-detained/
[6] https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21727119-regulatory-racket-means-businesses-stay-small-and-shadows-high-cost
[7] https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/07/daily-chart-12
[8] http://community.vanguardngr.com/profiles/blogs/what-a-senator-earns-in
[9]http://nigeriaworld.com/columnist/ajayi/082013.html
[10]http://nigeriaworld.com/columnist/ajayi/082013.html
[11] http://punchng.com/the-senate-and-theft-of-nigerian-voices/
[12] Nnamdi Azikiwe, Renascent African, London: Frank Can & Co., 1937, p.38
SIRPETERISM 
Leave a comment