Still On The Controversy Trailing Nigerian Legislators’ Pay Package

There are three major arms of government in any democratic terrain to include the executive, legislature and the judiciary. The legislature, which is our subject matter, is a group of people with the power to make and pass laws.

We aren’t unaware of the crucial and inevitable role of lawmaking in every existing country across the globe, hence Nigeria isn’t an exception.

Nigeria operates a bicameral system of legislature, whereby the country’s legislative responsibilities are shared among two separate assemblies. They are regarded as the Upper (Red) and Lower (Green) Chambers, otherwise called the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives, respectively.

It’s noteworthy that a bill can originate from either chambers but cannot become law until it has been duly passed by both as well as assented to by the President.

However, constitutionally, the Legislature can override the President’s veto, if both assemblies agree to do so with a two-third majority vote of its overall members after thirty days.

In recent times, many in various quarters have opined that the bicameral legislative mode being operated in Nigeria is an epitome of bureaucracy. According to them, the system has bedeviled the country’s financial status. This has overtime ensued tremendous debates among concerned citizens both home and in the Diaspora.

A few years back, the then lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in Nigeria, Senator Shehu Sani reportedly disclosed that each of the legislators in the Red Chamber goes home every month with N13.5 million as ‘running cost’ allowance. He further informed that that was in addition to the N750,000 monthly consolidated salary coupled with other allowances the senators invariably receive.

It’s worthy of note that ever since the shocking revelation was publicly made, the colleagues of the whistle blower have begun to condemn such an abrupt gesture. In their words, they could not expect Sen. Sani to act as the Spokesman of the Senate let alone ‘misinforming’ the people. Having claimed that the notice was false and unfounded, they feared it could make their respective constituents lose their trust in them.

It was apparent that Sen. Sani, who had been a well-known activist, may have spoken against the wish of his then colleagues. Little wonder they reacted in a displeased mood, stating the said legislator had brought his ‘silly’ activism cause to the Senate.

But, the question was; why did they think it wise to refute such information that bears an element of truism? Does it imply they were not only seeing Sen. Sani as a ‘silly activist’ but an insane lawmaker?

This exactly reminded me of the case of Hon. Abdulmumin Jibrin who sometime ago equally blew a whistle in the legislature, the Green Chamber though. At the time, Hon. Jibrin disclosed that the country’s 2017 budget was ‘padded’ by his fellow legislators.

In consequence to the unexpected avowal, his colleagues ganged up against him and subsequently succeeded in suspending the poor lawmaker who was seemingly standing alone.

In the same vein, Sen. Sani’s colleagues were ostensibly making a frantic move on how to silence him. They were perhaps of the view that relegating the whistleblower to the background would enable them to discredit his confession. Whatever move they intended to make, they were meant to acknowledge that the actual figure, which had long been shrouded in secrecy, was eventually divulged.

A discussion has hitherto been on that some persons venture into politics for service whilst a few others do so for self. I cannot concur less with the belief that several Nigerians participate in the aforementioned profession for the sake of the latter.

This is the reason, for instance, a lawmaker having collected his/her constituency allowance, rather than using the fund for what it is meant for, would end up siphoning it into his personal purse.

Nigerian politicians are really taking advantage of the civil servants. In other words, the former is obviously cheating the latter. How could one reconcile the fact that a lawmaker that sits at intervals and also goes on a recess is entitled to a bogus monthly allowance of about N13.5m or thereabouts, while a civil servant that works on a daily basis receives a minimum wage of N30,000 that isn’t even forthcoming? No wonder a Nigerian politician, on the average, is apparently ready to kill just to win an election.

Each day, we are being reminded that Nigeria is passing through recession, yet the pay package of a certain group of workers is enough to revive the country’s moribund refineries as well as resuscitate her dying institutions ranging from education to health and what have you.

The acknowledgement of such occurrence does not in any way bring hope for the weary citizenry. Hence, the time has arrived for the teeming Nigerians to take their future into our hands.

The public servants, particularly the political leaders, must take into cognizance that they were only mandated to plough the Nigerian land, not to plunder it.