Unic Press UK: ‘The Outrageous Compensation Of Law Makers’ By Martin Onovo.
The allegation in a national newspaper that national lawmakers were going to receive N8.64 Billion as wardrobe allowance shared N21.5 million per senator and N17.5 million per representative has been refuted by Engr. Elias Mbam, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission. Engr. Mbam stated most authoritatively that wardrobe allowance for senators is 25% of annual basic salary (ABS). With the official (RMAFC) report that the ABS of a senator is only N2.026 Million, then the wardrobe allowance per senator is N506,600 per annum.
However, his refutation does not and cannot close the issue of the unlawful, outrageous and sinful compensation of national lawmakers in Nigeria.
The following facts cannot be denied.
- We have 109 Senators and 360 Representatives making 469 Members of the National Assembly.
- The 2013 budget of the National Assembly was about N150 Billion.
- The 2014 budget was about N150 Billion.
- The 2015 budget is about N120 Billion due to the fall of crude oil prices.
- Arithmetically, it cost us averagely, N320 Million per lawmaker in 2014.
- Similarly, it will cost averagely, N255 Million per lawmaker in 2015.
Now a senator naturally costs more than a representative but these are gross averages per national assembly member based on the NASS budget.
Published reports in national newspapers allege that in 2014, each senator got N45 Million quarterly allowance. This amounts to N180 Million per year per senator. Other reports indicate that, Senators get 200% ABS as Housing allowance; 300% ABS Furniture allowance; 800% ABS Car loan and so many other allowances including leave, entertainment, newspaper, staff, etc.
Consequently, it can be estimated based on the NASS budget and published reports, that, each senator earns over N200 Million per annum. This is most definitely sinful in a country where the minimum wage is only N18,000 per month (N216,000 per annum).
Comparing with the richest country in the world (United States of America), the President of US earns $400,000 (N80 Million) per annum and a US senator earns $174,000 (N34.8 Million) per annum. It can be seen that a Nigerian senator not only earns six times more than a US senator but could be earning two and half times more than the US president. This must be investigated and corrected immediately.
This unlawful and sinful compensation of national lawmakers also aggravates the inequality index. In the US, minimum wage is about $10,000 per annum. Ipso facto, a US senator earns only 17.4 times the US minimum wage but in Nigeria, a senator earns almost 1,000 times minimum wage.
This sinful and unacceptable compensation of political office holders in Nigeria aggravates the ‘Inequality Index’ and must not be tolerated further.
The National Conscience Party (NCP) had proposed during the presidential campaigns to, ‘Increase minimum wage by reducing the maximum wage’, to correct this outrageous anomaly.
The estimates we used here will not be necessary if we had transparency in the compensation of political office holders. We must ensure that the compensation of public office holders is published accurately. Some political parties had filed a suit in the past to compel the National Assembly to disclose the compensation of its members but they have not succeeded yet.
According to HRH Lamido Sanusi (former CBN Governor), “The biggest problem in National Assembly, NASS, is not the salaries or allowances. It is a very big item in the NASS budget called overheads. What they do is pack that item in the appropriation bill and then “collapse” it according to a pre-agreed formula. A certain percentage is shared among the leadership.
Another portion is given to the management to cover genuine overheads. The rest is shared among members”. This allegation must also be investigated thoroughly, most urgently.
We can then imagine what the President of Nigeria earns if he can allow lawmakers to continue to earn these unlawful, outrageous and sinful sums as compensation.
LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. President Buhari Thirty-Three Days In Office’ By Martin Onovo
President Muhammadu Buhari collected an INEC Certificate of Return a few days after March 28th, 2015. He was sworn into office on 29 May 2015. He had about two months to prepare even more particularly for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria after the flawed elections.
Former President Jonathan out of patriotism assisted, encouraged Buhari by providing office space for Buhari’s team to prepare to takeover. Even with all that support, the President apparently, still did not prepare properly to takeover.
The appointment of good cabinet Ministers is critical to success in the presidency. The Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and several others have advised President Buhari out of patriotism on the need and manner he can appoint his ministers. The current dependence on Permanent Secretaries (Civil Servants) is inappropriate as they lack the authority of Ministers. The President could have had his ministerial list ready before he was sworn-in. This is the practice in responsible governments. No one single person can carry the responsibilities of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) effectively. The present situation where the President has operated without a Federal Executive Council is very irregular and ineffective. The current British Prime Minister named his entire cabinet members within three days. Some of the new governors in Nigeria, sworn-in on the same day as General Buhari, named some members of their cabinet on the same day they were sworn-in. This may be paradoxical as these governors had their elections two weeks after the presidential elections.
Leadership has three critical requirements namely, Integrity, Vision and Competence. General Buhari seems seriously deficient in all and needs our support to succeed.
His vision on any particular national issue is unclear to most Nigerians especially as he undemocratically avoided the presidential election debate. His Integrity has remained doubtful with his false campaign promises, the PTF Audit report and his controversial presidential candidate nomination process. His performance in the last thirty three days raises questions about his competence and the APC’s readiness to lead.
On the APC claim that the PDP refused to co-operate with its transition committee, the APC cannot continue with its senseless, unpatriotic propaganda. Every competent patriot must know the basic state of affairs in the country. A competent presidential candidate and his party must have previously assessed the state of affairs and developed their strategies and plans to confront the challenges to the country and improve development indices. The claim by APC that the mess left by the PDP has confused President Buhari is self-indicting. With such statements, the APC is painting itself and Buhari as incompetent. The APC should have known of the mess and prepared to clean it and not to use same as an excuse for their incompetence.
We can use the issue of the national debt to illustrate the level of incompetence being promoted and celebrated by the APC. We must remind all Nigerians that the information on our national debt has been publicly available on the website of the ‘Debt Management Office’. Our annual national budgets also had phenomenal provisions for debt servicing which indicates a heavy debt burden but the APC remained incompetent and blind to even widely published facts. Our party, the National Conscience Party [NCP] had patriotically raised alarm over our national debt many months before the elections.
Some of Buhari actions and inactions suggest that he may be unprepared for the position of President. The first indication was after he had collected the INEC Certificate of Return and the importers of petroleum products protested over the large debts owed to them by the outgoing federal government. This led to a severe fuel crisis that constrained productive activities nation-wide. President Buhari stood aloof and did not intervene even as the situation deteriorated. He could have simply intervened and reassured the importers that all legitimate obligations of the federal government will be met and that would have resolved the situation and saved the country from the colossal losses incurred during the crisis.
Right now, the APC government is preparing to increase electricity tariff without a clear plan for the improvement of electric power supply in the country. The direction and strategy for other sectors still remain unclear. The inability to appoint minister makes the situation complicated.
President Buhari needs to quickly conclude his strategy and plans for different sectors and appoint ministers to implement his plans. He needs good cabinet ministers to improve the effectiveness of his regime.
Martin Onovo, a public figure and eminent consulting engineer. He was the 2015 Presidential Candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP)
