By: highcelebritysquard
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan and Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila
The 9th National Assembly’s tenure will come to an end in June next year but not a few are of the view that the lawmakers have done much in serving themselves than protecting the interest of the masses, writes CHUKWUDI AKASIKE
The legislature in any democratic setting remains part of a tripod on which a country that wishes speedy development stands. Apart from the watchdog role to the other arms of government, the parliament as it is called in countries operating unitary system of government also has the obligation of approving growth-oriented budgetary proposals and making laws to sustain a healthy society.
In developed democracies like those of the United Kingdom, the United States and even nearby South Africa, the job of this critical arm of government can determine how a nation is shaped in terms of growth. But the situation is different in Nigeria as many appear to have continued to endure the seeming self-serving motives of the National Assembly.
From the contentious jumbo pay in the past to the current consideration by the federal lawmakers to give presiding officers of the National Assembly pensions after a few years of service, Nigerians have begun to question the level of patriotism among their representatives in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Many of the lawmakers had once gathered to award what could pass as underserved accolades to themselves for the number of bills passed into law since the 9th Assembly came on board. With the way they reeled out bills that were passed into law, none of them apparently cared to rate their performance based on the current development rating of Nigeria, a country where insecurity, ritual killings, armed robbery and agitations for self-determination have become the norm. Even some of the lawmakers are afraid to visit their constituencies due to the activities of daredevil terrorists.
On the controversial jumbo pay of the lawmakers, Saturday PUNCH investigations have shown that each of the 109 senators in the National Assembly takes home about N182m yearly, translating to N15.1m monthly or N45.3m per quarter. In the House of Representatives, each of the 360 lawmakers gets a total annual package of N136.6m or N11.3m monthly (or N33.9m quarterly).
The National Assembly and its organs, prior to 2015, had a yearly budget of N150bn for many years. Up to N9bn of the vote went into the take-home pay of lawmakers. Between 2015 and 2020, the budget ranged from N120bn to N139bn, as Nigeria faced dwindling financial resources, particularly from crude oil market instability. The findings were as of February 2020. A former lawmaker, Senator Shehu Sani, had said in March 2018 that he received N13.5m allowances monthly.
Apart from this, the National Assembly, which has 469 members, has been criticised for operating an opaque budget and has continued to display an unwillingness to reveal the allowances of its members. Although the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had insisted that there was no jumbo package for National Assembly members, the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay, said Nigerian federal lawmakers were among the highest-earning lawmakers in the world.
Lawan specifically said his monthly salary as a lawmaker and that of his colleagues remained N750, 000 monthly. He said, “I never believed that there is anything called jumbo payment to the National Assembly members. The National Assembly members both in the Senate and the House of Representatives receive just their salaries and I receive N750, 000 as my salary.”
Another area where the apparent egocentric nature of some of the lawmakers is manifest is in the proposal of life pension for presiding officers of the National Assembly, including the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives as well as their deputies. Although the proposal did not stand the test of time as the House of Representatives voted against the move barely one week after the proposal was made.
The move had sparked an angry reaction from civil society organisations. One of them, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, specifically called on Nigerians to ask their various representatives at the National Assembly to reject such a proposed amendment, maintaining that it was selfish of them (legislators) to have considered such a provision in the first place.
The SERAP Director, Kola Dare, stated, “The proposed amendment, if that is true, cannot be said to be in the interest of Nigeria. SERAP is in court challenging the payment of life pensions to some governors and deputy governors in their states. That of the National Assembly is at best a waste of public resources. The money could be put to better use, the education sector is there, and our health sector is not getting the best of funding. That proposed amendment should not be allowed to stand. Nigerians should reach out to their representatives at the National Assembly to vote against the amendment.”
Also, recall that the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, had accused members of the National Assembly of being the beneficiaries of most of the contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission. The minister spoke when he appeared before the public hearing of the probe panel at the House of Representatives investigating the corruption allegations against Akpabio and members of the then Interim Management Committee of the commission.
“The NDDC plays a vital role in ensuring the peace and security of the region and 90 per cent or more of the resources of the country come from there. If you close it down in totality, all you will have is chaos. You will have a lot of, not just militancy; you will have a lot of insurrection. So it is important that people who have gone to court, people who genuinely did jobs should be paid for their jobs. For me, I am not against it because, of course, who are even the greatest beneficiaries? It is you people.”
When pressed further by the panel which wanted to know what benefits the lawmakers get from the contracts, Akpabio said, “I just told you that we have records to show that most of the contracts in the NDDC are given out to members of the National Assembly.” However, the minister has since denied saying the lawmakers got 60 per cent of the contracts awarded by the agency.
There’s a general lack of selfless service, says PANDEF
Speaking on what he termed a lack of patriotism on the part of the federal lawmakers, the spokesman for the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Ken Robinson, said there were unmistakable suggestions that the federal legislators had not shown interest in the welfare of Nigerians, adding that apart from the lawmakers, others occupiers of public offices had a similar attitude.
Robinson said, “The National Assembly members are Nigerians, and there is a general problem of lack of selfless service. It is the same problem with ministers, the same with the executive. With some of the things we see, if they are people who are patriotic in occupying those offices, they should ask why we don’t have refineries that are working. In a country like Nigeria, for over 20 years, 30 years, we are depending on fuel refined outside the country.
“We have had this very unfortunate situation where those who are occupying political positions in the country are self-seeking people. They are not patriotic; they are less concerned about the welfare of Nigerians. They are interested only in their own welfare. The generality of the people is suffering. We shouldn’t be experiencing fuel scarcity, the poor state of health and road infrastructure.
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“With so much money made from the crude oil, we have billionaires, we have multi-millionaires, and we have millionaires. A few individuals are getting richer and the country is poor. But for the National Assembly, they will either show interest in their goals or their party’s interest. That is what they are there for.”
Nigerians should be proud of 9th N’Assembly – Kalu
But the Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu disagreed with the forum and others who thought the lawmakers were unpatriotic, adding that Nigerians should be proud of the current legislature.
“This 9th National Assembly is an Assembly that Nigerians ought to be proud of. I said so because, in three years or less, a lot of jinxes have been broken. It is this same Assembly that did the (Deep) Offshore (and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract) Bill that became an Act. Under this Assembly, the Police Bill became an Act; amended to suit the realities of our time. It is under this Assembly that the ‘almighty’ Petroleum Industry Bill that had defeated successive governments became an Act of Parliament. Many never believed it was going to be done.
“This Assembly has also insisted on working with the Committees on Appropriations and the Executive (arm of government) to make sure that we returned the calendar of the budget system to January-December as proposed by the Constitution. Many thought we were not going to do it back to back but we have been able to do that time and again. It is in this Assembly as well that we chose to walk the talk found in our legislative agenda on electoral reforms. It has been a very important issue in the minds of Nigerians.
“I want to go further by saying that we promised Nigerians that beyond the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, we would go to another issue that has been a pertinent issue in the minds of all Nigerians. That is to prune our grand norm, to adjust it to reflect the needs, desires and hunger of Nigerians. Never have we had a National Assembly that did the amount of in-depth review of the Constitution like the 9th Assembly – 68 reviews of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, cut across the judicial sector reform, the electoral reform, the financial autonomy that is needed for the three tiers of government, especially the local government, and recognising the local governments as the constitutional third tier of government. It was achieved by this review,” the House of Representatives spokesman added.
Lawmakers’ jumbo pay shows they’re self-seeking – Former deputy speaker
Not satisfied with Kalu’s position, a former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Leyii Kwanee, said members of the National Assembly had yet to show that they had the interest of the people at heart. Kwanee said, “For instance, they are looking for immunity. What do the lawmakers have to hide? Why are they looking for immunity? If they are transparent, they should know that their job is actually a call to service. That is to tell you that they are not serving the interest of the average Nigerian. If you look at their salaries, you will know that they are self-seeking.
“Never in the history of parliament have we seen this kind of setup. Normally, the legislative arm of government is supposed to be a watchdog; they have been very insensitive and self-seeking. I will not blame the executive arm of government as such, but if the legislature had done what was expected of them, they would have been able to ginger the executive arm of government to their (executive) responsibility. These two arms of government are supposed to check one another.
Most NASS members not interested in Nigeria – Omenazu
Similarly, the Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, Jackson Omenazu, explained that the lawmakers were not showing any form of anxiety over the worsening situation in the country.
“Honestly, the majority of the National Assembly members are not thinking about Nigeria, but thinking about themselves. They were elected to drop every other personal interest and have the interest of the nation at heart. Under the economic situation Nigeria finds itself in today, one would have expected that some of them would say take 10 per cent of our salaries and give it to the poor and channel it to one productive venture so that some Nigerians can be relieved economically. But none of them has done so. Instead, we are seeing a bloated budget of the National Assembly, we are seeing a National Assembly building that should be renovated with hundreds of billions of naira.
“Due to insecurity, most of them have not gone to their constituencies for the past two years because of insecurity. They are legislating in Abuja and their constituents do not see them, and very few of them get back to their constituencies at the end of the day. How many of them have gone for town hall meetings to aggregate the interest of their constituents and then bring it to the National Assembly for deliberation? So, the question is whose interest are they serving? How patriotic have they been? Several bills that are meant to reactivate the economy spend months in the National Assembly.
“For me, as a leader of a civil society organisation, I still insist that the current political experiment is highly ineffective and defective. Nigerians should seek and convoke a sovereign national conference where the extant laws of the country will come from the people. Without sounding immodest, 75 per cent of the National Assembly members do not have a genuine mandate. We are all witnesses to how elections are conducted in this country,” Omenazu added.
