By Sonnie Ekwowusi
Last Thursday the House of Representatives declared viva voce that it would not reduce the humongous salaries, allowances and emoluments of its members despite the persistent demands of the public to that effect. The House argues that it is the executive arm of government which manages a large chunk of the national wealth that should reduce its salaries, not the National Assembly which manages just a paltry per cent of the national wealth.
Hear the House of Representatives Spokesman Benjamin Kalu, “The 0.8% of the national budget for the National Assembly is not enough to run the National Assembly. If you want to cut salaries, expenses, cost of governance, start it from the Executive…people think that the money that comes to the National Assembly is divided by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. That’s a wrong narrative…Nigerians will be shocked that people they thought were rich are not able to meet their needs and that’s the truth…”
It is preposterous that amid the vicious cycle of poverty in the land and dwindling government income occasioned by the plummeting oil prices, the members of the National Assembly are opposed to the reduction of their fat salaries and emoluments aimed at pruning the high cost of governance, and, by extension saving Nigeria from imminent bankruptcy. You will recall that one of demands of the Nigerian youths during the #EndSARS protests was the reduction of the scandalous salaries and emoluments of the members of the National Assembly. Besides in August this year the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila stated that the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic had had a huge negative impact on the country’s revenue Nigeria and therefore Nigeria was inevitably committed to drastically reduce the cost of governance in order to stabilize the economy. You will recall that in June this year President Muhammadu Buhari approved the implementation of the report of the Rationalization and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies(popularly called the Oronsaye Report) which recommended the merger, conversion and scrapping of many government agencies. Former Governor of Central Bank Lamido Sanusi once shocked the nation when he revealed that 25 per cent of the entire federal overheads were expended on the National Assembly and that that the National Assembly alone was getting N136.259, 768,102, that is exactly 25.4 per cent of the total Federal Government overhead of N536, 268, 49,280. So, the high cost of governance in Nigeria has become such a disturbing phenomenon that everybody in Nigeria wants a reduction of the cost of governance in order to save Nigeria from final collapse.
If consensus had been reached across board on the need to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria, why the procrastination in doing so? Why the sudden volte-face of the House of Representatives after Speaker Gbajabiamila had said that the House was committed to reducing the cost of governance in Nigeria?
The monthly emoluments of our Federal legislators is said to be higher than that of the Presidents of most countries. So, why are the Federal legislators complaining that they are not earning enough?. Why are they making a counter-accusation and alleging that it is the Executive arm that should reduce the salaries of its members not the Legislature?. Why the foot-dragging in implementing the Oronsaye Report? Nigeria has become a theatre of absurdities otherwise why should the Executive and Legislature which are supposed to be acting as checks and balances on each other now quarreling over the sharing of the spoils of office in a country completely ravaged by crass poverty. The Federal government is about to borrow another $750 million from the World Bank. What for? You may ask. I wouldn’t be surprised if the monies are used to settle the scandalous salaries, emoluments, travel allowances, ward-rope allowances, housing benefits and others of our legislators and public office holders.
The Buhari government is broke. So, common sense dictates that it should stop borrowing money and using it to indulge in fanciful spendthrift, extravagance and wasteful expenditure. Ours is a country of incestuous government extravagance and sheer waste. For example, the running of the Presidency alone guzzles a good chunk of the nation’s wealth. Likewise running a State government. A State governor was once quoted as boasting before a Senator and saying: “you people get N53 million every quarter, we get N3 billion every month”. Look at the scandalous amount budgeted to maintain the presidential fleet. The President has more than six aircrafts in his convoy, not to mention that his daughter flies on a Presidential jet from time to time. In the 2020 budget about N3 billion has been officially budgeted as travelling allowances of the President and Vice-President alone. Little or no work is done in many of the federal government Ministries, Commissions and Parastatals in Abuja yet the idle public officers employed therein are paid every month for doing nothing.
Worst still, many government offices in Abuja are bloated offices with little or no work done in them. During working hours, many of the so-called government workers are seen charting away or idling away along the corridors. If you go to the Federal Secretariat, Abuja you will find many government workers milling around without any work assigned to them to do. Once I went to the office of the Federal Character Commission, Abuja to ascertain the functions of the Commission. You can’t believe what transpired. Not even the staffers of the Commission could explain to me the specific functions of the Commission. How long shall we continue to sustain this grueling rip-off called democracy at the expense of the poverty-stricken people of Nigeria? How long shall we continue to tolerate a rip-off democracy in which the average Federal legislator rakes home about N53 million every quarter?
Therefore the Buhari government should muster the political will to implement the Oronsaye Report in order to trim down the cost of governance in Nigeria. All the Presidential jets should be sold off except one. Salaries and emoluments of our Federal legislators must be slashed now. The Presidency does not need about 100 government Parastatals under it. Most Federal agencies and Commissions encumbering Abuja should be scrapped or merged or collapsed into one or two agencies. Government bureaucracies should be reduced and streamlined.
Pursuant to section 147 of the Nigerian Constitution, we need 36 Ministers not 43 Ministers. A Minister does not need 10 official cars, 10 drivers, 10 special assistants and about five personal assistants. A Special Assistant to, say, a Minister, does not need a Special Assistant. A deputy-Director of a Parastatal or a Ministry does not need 5 official cars and 5 drivers. A Special Adviser does not need to have his own Special Advisor or executive assistant or a retinue of officials and cars. A legislator does not need a retinue of idle staff to be sleeping in the office every day. Since the Nigeria Police Force, ICPC, EFCC, CID, NDLEA and DSS are mostly performing the same functions, why retain all of them?. It is necessary to foster frugal lifestyles among our political office holders in which extravagance, spendthrift and waste would be minimized.
