Before we go naked to clothe our lawmakers

Kenyan legislators are copycats. Or should I say they are envious of dandified Nigerian legislators most of who pay more attention to their looks than the business of lawmaking? Between October last year and March, Kenyan lawmakers made two attempts to triple their end-of-term bonuses and awarded themselves and their spouses diplomatic passports, bodyguards for life and state funerals despite being among the highest paid legislators in the world. Although Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has no power to determine the salaries of the lawmakers, he did not accede to the eccentric greed of a group of people many Kenyans consider to be corrupt, lazy and already overpaid. But the road which many Kenyans see as bumpy and capable of ruining their economy is what our legislators have been travelling on since 2005.

The avarice of our lawmakers got to a very embarrassing level a few years back when the leadership of the House of Representatives surreptitiously obtained N10 billion bank loan purposely to increase their quarterly salaries and allowances from N28 million to N42 million per lawmaker. At a time, The Economist magazine reported that the Nigerian lawmakers, with a basic salary of $189, 500 (N30.6 million as at the time of the report), make them the highest paid legislators in the world.

The report said the basic salary was 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600. Yet in another report, the 469 lawmakers comprising 109 senators and 360 House of Reps members cost Nigeria over N76 billion on annual salaries, allowances and quarterly payments. The breakdown showed that each member of the Senate committee receives between N648 million and N972 million as yearly imprest, while a member of the House laughs all the way to the bank with between N35 million and N140 million as quarterly or yearly allowances.

This tally with the alarm raised by the immediate past Governor of the Central Bank, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, now the Emir of Kano, that 25 per cent of the nation’s overhead was being spent on the legislators. The Federal Government also reported that it spent N1 trillion from 2005 to 2013 on the legislators. These scandalous figures ought to have deterred the present leadership of the National Assembly from travelling on the same road to perdition like some of their predecessors who fell as a result of their insatiable greed.

Their N9 billion wardrobe allowance which will see each senator receiving N21.5 million and a Rep getting N17.5 million has given credence to the axiom that politicians are birds of a feather or what Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, once described as “same of the same.” The wardrobe allowance, like furniture and vehicle allowances, is meant for the entire four-year term of the National Assembly members as against the housing allowance that is given yearly.

Aside other outlandish allowances and corrupt practices such as bribe-for-budget, housing allowance for political office holders is 200 per cent of their annual salaries; furniture is 300 per cent and motor vehicle loan is 400 per cent. When the jumbo pay of the legislators became a public knowledge during the tenure of the sixth National Assembly, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), a body empowered under Section 70 of the constitution to fix the monthly emolument of the lawmakers, described the outrageous pay as strange.

It put the monthly emolument of a senator at N1.06 million while that of a Rep member N794, 000, which is far higher than what they allocate to themselves. Yet the best some of them did with their spurious and sudden wealth was to sink one or two boreholes in their constituencies, occasionally give analgesic to the sick or provide between N5,000 and N10,000 to selected few in the name of economic empowerment. Some of these so-called constituency projects are in most cases deliberately not carried out until election year. How many laudable projects can we ascribed to legislators in our constituencies? Already, a member of the House of Reps, Chief Joe Edionwele, has attributed the hue and cry over the ongoing scandalous allowances of the lawmakers to ignorance, saying some lecturers earn more than the lawmakers.

Of course if I believe that, then I should believe that the sun rises from West and sets in the East.We had a more ludicrous defence in the past when a lawmaker from Taraba State said Nigeria should bear the brunt of the lawmakers’ expenses during electioneering and that their jumbo pay should compensate for that. It was a defence except that it was a mere bombastic political posturing or an oratorical display that signified nothing and lacked iota of conviction. The ruinous state of our economy is enough to discourage our lawmakers from allocating outrageous allowances to themselves under whatever guise.

The political profile of our lawmakers will rise in the eyes of Nigerians by the number of laws they make to better our society and not by the number of flashy cars in their garages or the number of exotic places they visit for holidays. The truth is that our dwindling economy can no longer support sybarite lawmakers otherwise our country will be seen as lacking modest leaders who are grounded in financial prudence. This is the time for our lawmakers to cut their cloth according to reality that the country which they expect to pay for their clothes is broke.

Although they have different sizes, shapes and their tastes differ, these will not matter because the tax payers who also stood in the queue for hours to ensure that they realised their political dreams will not want to go naked for our “honourables” to put on “designers” clothes.

Wardrobe allowance should be seen and treated as a matter of trifling importance. Consistently running a budget that is based on 75 per cent recurrent expenditure and 25 per cent capital expenditure will only portray us as a country that is not serious with development. Besides, our political offices should be made less attractive as this will save us some money and also reduce tension and turbulence associated with election year. Whatever money we save from running an expensive democracy can be used for development. This should be the thinking of our lawmakers if they understand the importance of rectitude.