In-strong-condemnation-of-the-over-4-billion-naira-welcome-package-for-the-9th-assembly

Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, Deputy Senate President (Right) and Ahmed Lawan Senate President (Left)
 

Femi Gbajabiamila (Speaker, House of Representatives of Nigeria)
 

Ahmed Wase (Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives of Nigeria)
 
IN STRONG CONDEMNATION OF THE OVER ₦4.68 BILLION “WELCOME PACKAGE” FOR THE 9TH ASSEMBLY
We join our voices with the rest of Nigerians, which includes the more than 1,500 concerned Nigerians, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), BudgIT and Enough is Enough Nigeria (EIE), that had filed a lawsuit asking the Federal High Court to “restrain, prevent and stop the National Assembly Service Commission from paying the incoming members of the 9th National Assembly individually and/or collectively over N4.68 billion as welcome package.”  We strongly condemn this broad day light robbery of our national collective wealth, by the selected few as lawmakers, who have over the years, done nothing concrete to alleviate the sufferings and hardship being faced by Nigerians, but only to continue feeding fat from the nation’s public purse.
What we also find quite disturbing is the fact that, according to the suite number FHC/L/CS/943/2019 filed recently by SERAP, BudgIT and EIE, suing for themselves and on behalf of 1,522 concerned Nigerians, it was noted that:  “The Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has failed to do any downward review of salaries and allowances of members of the National Assembly since 2007 in spite of the economic downturn in Nigeria. Yet, the commission is statutorily required to review the pay of the lawmakers, in conformity with the country’s economic realities and to achieve fiscal efficiency.” Joined as defendants in the suit are the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Assembly Service Commission and Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
The suit read in part: “Unless the reliefs sought by the plaintiffs are granted, the defendants and members of the National Assembly will continue to benefit from these outrageous salaries and allowances, in breach of the law and at the expense of millions of Nigerians living in extreme poverty. The amounts budgeted as payment for furniture and accommodation allowance to members of the 9th National Assembly negates the oath of office under the Seventh Schedule of the 1999 Constitution by members to perform their functions in the interest of the well-being and prosperity of Nigeria. The National Assembly comprises of 469 members – with 109 in the Senate and 360 in the House of Representatives. These public officers form a very tiny percentage of about 200 million Nigerians. Members are still eligible to collect huge sums of money as monthly allowances and severance pay at the end of their respective terms.”
Though, it was reported as at the time of writing this piece, that no date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit yet. It was also noted that: “The action of members of the National Assembly in ‘rubber-stamping’ the passage of the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders [Salaries and Allowances] [Amendments] Act 2008 is also in clear breach of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, particularly paragraph 1 of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers which provides that ‘a public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts with his duties and responsibilities’. It can be inferred that in passing the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders [Salaries and Allowances] [Amendments] Act 2008, members of the National Assembly more or less appropriated these payments as allowance to themselves, thereby bringing about conflict of their personal interests with national interest of fiscal efficiency, a conflict eventually resolved in favour of personal interest.” Also, “Section 70 of the Nigerian Constitution provides that a member of the Senate or the House of Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the RMAFC may determine.”
The truth is, there is no plausible reason to defend the severance package approved by Nigerian federal legislators for themselves. Nigeria is one of the pocket countries in the entire world where the legislators prescribe, approve and pay to themselves extraordinary and ridiculous amount of monies as salaries and allowances. As noted above, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) imbues the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission as the statutory body with the responsibility of fixing salaries and related allowances of persons in the service of the government of the federation. However, in total disregard to the latent provisions of the constitution, our federal lawmakers have legislated on and approved jumbo salaries for themselves without recourse to the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission. This bothers on greed, pursuit self-glorification and aggrandizement. The conduct does not take into consideration the plight of the masses and should be deprecated by all and sundry. There is no legal and moral justification for the betrayal of the trust reposed by the people in the legislature. The office of a federal legislator is not pensionable and any attempt to legislate severance package for themselves amounts to abuse of their office and cannot be justified in any guise. This was reiterated in a published interview of Victor Abasiakan-Ekim, former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association Abuja Branch, who argued that Nigerian legislators use their office to feather their nest in a few years of service  
It is imperative to be reminded of the fact that majority of the States in Nigerian have passed laws legalizing the payment of severance allowance to former governors including provision of choice accommodation and personal staff for governors who served for a term of four years or a maximum of eight years of two tenures for life, which we have rightly condemned. This is a wanton waste of State resources and to further include these former governors, some of whom are now in the 9th Assembly, in category of persons to be paid severance package, is taking greed to an Olympian height. According to Abasiakan-Ekim, “The law is that one cannot receive pension from two different sources. It goes to show how the political class has betrayed the trust of the people and further throws them into abject poverty by plundering the commonwealth. In the first instance, the payment of the severance package is unconstitutional and illegal and to include former governors in the category of beneficiaries further compounds the issue.”  
We have said it on several occasions that those who usually end up as members of the nation’s National Assembly as Lawmakers (both past and present), are part of the major obstacles that have been stagnating and retrogressing the country’s developmental strides from all angles. This unfortunate attribute of the nation’s Federal lawmakers is often demonstrated by them in different forms that are too many to elaborate. From their bad practice of always passing the nation’s budget late, to them being embedded with one controversy or the other. If it is not allegations of bribery, padding of national budgets, and other corrupt practices of great proportions, it will be dramas of fisticuffs and free-for-all fights or gross misconduct and misappropriation of public funds. Aside the usual late passage of the national budget, if it is not “budget padding”, it will be the “insertion or removal of projects/programs for their own personal interests”. And now, the 9th Assembly, that have not even started any legislative work, is already allocating for themselves huge amounts of money in the name of ‘welcome package’. What is so special about their being welcomed into the 9th Assembly that would require them to be paid such huge amounts of money? With this, that means they will practically drain the nation’s resources before they leave office in the next four years.
All of these monies, is aside the ones that comes to them through the ‘backdoor’ as tips, bribes, and ‘brown-envelopes’ and what have you, which often comes to them as lawmakers, from different angles for their ‘favours’, one thing or the other. No wonder the likes of Dino Melaye could be living in such affluence and splendor, while his Kogi State people are languishing in lack and poverty. We recall again, a video that went viral on social media of Honourable Muhammed Kazaure Gudaji of the House of Representatives in the Eight Assembly, who practically left dazed and speechless after visiting Senator Dino Melaye’s House to count all his luxurious cars - from Mercedes Benz G-Wagon (N45.4m), Mercedes E-Class (N8.6m), Mazda CX3 (N8.6m), Range Rover Sport (N62.7m), Single-rear-wheel Polaris Slingshot (N7.3m), Classical Rolls Royce Phantom (N49.8m), Porsche Carrera 911 (N34.6), Harley Davidson power bike (N9.4m), Bentley Continental (N71m), Rolls Royce Phantom (N163.3m), Lamborghini Huracan (N86.7m), Mercedes Benz G63 (N51.8m), Rolls Royce Ghost (N105.7m), etc., all in one man’s garage who is supposedly a Public Servant. This is aside his gold-plated furniture, multi-billion-dollar mansion in Abuja and only God knows where else. He uses a N2m and N1.1m Patek Wrist Watches, N3m Rolex Watch for men, amongst other things that makes one wonder how much does a Nigerian Senator really earn? This is just ONE SENATOR, we can imagine what the rest 109 Senators combined are worth, in a country where the minimum wage has been N18,000 for about a decade, and only moved to N30,000, which many State Governors are already crying out and complaining that they will not be able to pay. 
Any well-meaning and patriotic Nigerian would see that Nigerian lawmakers are part of the major problems we have in the nation’s forward movement, as all their actions are usually ‘self-serving’ and an attempt to frustrate democracy while they enrich themselves to the detriment of the masses. Nigerian lawmakers should be reminded that they were supposedly elected to represent the interests of the Nigerian people and not their self-centered interests. They are there to enact laws that would entrench and sustain “good governance” across the polity and not to enact or amend laws that would only serve their selfish interest.
One wonders what duty or responsibility the so-called honourable members of the Senate and House of Representatives are discharging to warrant their ambiguous salaries, allowances and now welcome packages? The reality of their performance over the years is even a greater embarrassment: empty seats during sessions, merry-go-round on non-conclusive inquiries which are often turned into rent-seeking exercises. It is even more scandalous that they are paid sumptuously for the sinecure they call responsibility. They are the recipients of unimaginable allowances outside basic salaries. Also, it is the practice that under the pretext of statutory transfer, the National Assembly are allocated huge sums which details are never made public. They enjoy these privileges for “practically doing nothing” other than create more problems and confusion for the polity, and against the backdrop of a “laughable minimum wage” for an average worker, unpaid public servants, and millions of jobless graduates who roam the streets and increasing social crises. To say that these lawmakers are mindless, wicked and with no conscience, is to put it mildly.
On several occasions, we have called on the need for Nigerians to regularly re-appraise and re-examine the integrity, character and personality of those representing their various constituencies in the National Assembly, particularly those in the Lower Chamber – the House of Representatives. It is not everybody that puts on good cloths, speaks relatively good English like an orator, and drives good cars or lives in affluence wealth that has the integrity, character and charisma to be a leader. The National Assembly as the Legislative Arm of government can be regarded as the “deciding factor” that enacts laws meant for the progress and development of the country. They are also in the position to “checkmate” the “excesses” arising from the Executive Arm of government. Hence, it is imperative that men/women that will make up the National Assembly should be persons of integrity, high moral uprightness and who are ready to make “sacrifices for their people”. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with the Nigerian National Assembly and its members.
 
 
Zik Gbemre.
 
 
 
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes as if Those Were Our Causes