By Omoh Gabriel, Emma Ujah,Babajide Komolafe, Clara Nwachukwu, Peter Egwuatu, Mike Eboh, Victor Aihuman-Young

Nigerians are enraged over the huge salaries and pecks being paid to members of the National Assembly and other political office holders that has  shown they are not in political offer to serve the nation but to milk it dry.

The amount paid as over head to members of the national assembly as admitted by the principal officers of the House of Representative and Senate is N140 billion, while the over head of running the government is N540 billion. Payment of salaries and other recurrent expenditure in 2010 amounted to N3 billion while the capital vote for the construction of roads, power and other infrastructure was a mere N1.4 billion. As if this is not bad enough while the recurrent has been 100 per cent spent only about 30 per cent of the capital vote has been spent. Out of the recurrent expenditure each senator is said to have as his share the sum of N369,479,749 as his salaries and allowances per annum. This amounts to N40,273,292,641 for the 109 members in the senate.

If cost of maintaining a senator were to be paid for by every Nigeria male, female as well as children the 150 million people living in Nigeria will be made to pay the sum of N264.48 annually. They will therefor be made to cough out N22 as fees to feed a senator per month. This Nigerians say is extremely too high in a country that can not provide its citizenry six hours of regular supply of electricity, 70 per cent live under N150 per day.

What legislators are suppose to earn
The total annual emolument of a senator as recommended by Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission stands at N12. 766 million, per annum which translates to about N1.063 million per month. Although the Senate President earns a slightly high annual basic salary of N2.484 million compared to other senators who receive a total of N2.026 per annum, his total emolument is N8.694 per annum because most of the items for which his colleagues receive are provided by the federal government.

The Deputy Senate President who is on an annual basic salary of N2.309 million also has a total emolument of N8.082 million as the federal government also provides him they services for which other senators receive various allowances.

According to the remuneration package for political, public and judicial  office holders obtained from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Copmmission, RMAFC, in Abuja, the Senate Majority Leader receive the highest cash of N12.968 total annual emolument.

The breakdown shows that on annual basis, senators receive N1.519 million for vehicle maintenance and fuelling; N506, 600 for personal Assistant; N101, 320 for House Maintenance ; N1.519 for domestic staff; N607, 920 for entertainment; another N607, 920 for utilities; N 5.066 million for constituency office, N506, 600 for robe ; N303, 960 for newspapers; and responsibility allowance of N202, 640 for the Senate Majority Leader. The Minority Leader receives N141, 848 for responsibility, while other senators receive N101, 230, each.

In addition the senators receive other non_regular allowances, such as accommodation, N4.052 million; furniture, N6.079 million; Vehicle loan N8.105 million,; and 202, 640 as leave allowance.  The Senate President receives $1, 300 per night estacode and N37, 000 per night duty tour allowance for trips within the country.

His Deputy receives $ 790 per night estacode and duty tour allowance of NN32,000, while other senators $600 estacode per night and N23, 000 duty tour allowance per night. They receive a severance package of N6.079 million upon completion of their tenure.

At the House of representatives, the Majority Leader receives the highest cash with a total annual emolument of N 9.727 million.
The Minority Leader receives a total of N9.667 million annual emolument, while other members receive N9.628 million.

Just like the Senate President and his Deputy, the Speaker and his deputy receive have much of the items for which their colleagues collect cash provided for in kind by the federal government. Consequently, the Speakers’s total emolument stands at N4.954 million; while his deputy receives N4.574 million. Their non_regualr allowances include : N3.970 million for accommodation; N5.955 for furniture; N198, 521 for annual leave; and N7.940 million for vehicle . The speaker’s estacode per night tands at $1,000 and N35, 000 per night duty tour allowance.

The deputy speaker receives $750 estacode per night and N30, 000 duty our allowance per night, while the members receive estacode of $550 per night and N21, 000 duty tour allowance per night.
The members receive a severance package of N5.955 million each, at the end of their tenure.

Reacting to the high cost of keeping members of the National Assembly Mr. Opeyemi Agbaje said
“The point Sanusi Lamido is making is one I have made on several occasions_the National Assembly is consuming too much resources. By the way, this is also (more) true of the Executive as well. However I have so far been unable to agree with the CBN Governor’s figure of 25 per cent. But it does not have to be 25 per cent for the figure to be outrageous_the rate of increase of National Assembly’s budget since 1999 cannot be justified”.

Commenting Mr. Uju Ogubunka, Registrar, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria said “We should deal with facts and not emotions. Facts will help us to reconsider our ways and make amends where necessary. Emotions becloud reality and serve nobody any good. Until facts are faulted, they remain. No amount of emotions can subdue them. Lets face realities as we struggle with making our polity and economy better.

Dr. Martin Oluba President/CEO ValueFronteira Limited Strategic Business Analytics | Economic & Financial Research | Market Research & Strategic Documentations said “The tragedy of this country’s management style is once again evidenced in the speed with which the national assembly reacted to a truth that Sanusi wanted to drum into their ears and conscience. If it were any other pressing national issue, they would not respond that fast irrespective of lives and enterprises of Nigerians that might be on the line.

“The point is that Sanusi has spoken the minds of many Nigerians. Whether the figure is 25 per cent or not is immaterial. What is most important here is the merciless sleeting of the country by a bunch of legislators when civil servants are crying and wailing to get a minimum monthly stipend of only N18,000. Thank God that Sanusi did not buckle to their determined attempts to intimidate him. The national assembly should repent of this sin. They are killing this economy. Simple!”

Mr. Johnson Chukwu MD/CEO Cowry Asset Management Limited stating his position said “It is common sense that for any country to develop economically, it must commit more resources to develop its economic and social infrastructure. Emerging economies like China, Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Africa, etc are commanding so much foreign investment because they have invested heavily in developing their infrastructural base. It therefore follows that if as a country we continue to invest over 70 per cent of our national budget on consumption – recurrent expenditure instead of capital goods – infrastructure, our country’s hope of ever becoming a developed nation will remain a mere wish.

The different arms of government must recognise the imperative of drastically reducing their recurrent expenditure so as to devote more resources for the much needed infrastructural development of Nigeria. Until we stop this profligacy, there is no hope that the roads, railways, airports, schools, hospitals, etc that we need to jump start our economic development will ever be built”.

NASS is recklessly expensive
Afe Mayowa – MD/CEO, Danvic Concepts International Nig. Ltd. simply said “ The BN Governor knows what he is talking about. At his level as the CBN Governor, you can not just quote figures that you are not sure of.  As for the NASS, I believe the legislators are just trying to defend their recklessness in spending, but there is no justification for the amount of funds accruing to NASS.

Yes, we know that democracy is expensive, but the type of NASS that we have, have no consideration for budgetary constraints; they are just too expensive. Look at the amount of Constituency allowance they get, what do they use the money for? Most of the time they use it on themselves, O! they are recklessly expensive”.

For Ayo Adedoyin – MD/CEO, Peacegate Oil and Gas Nig. Ltd “Whatever his shortcomings, the CBN Governor actually earned my respect and admiration, as he stood by his comments, unlike the Minister of Finance, who kept denying what he said and did not say. The CBN governor told Nigerians that his assertion was based on information he got from the Budget Office, whether it was correct or not. We know that democracy is expensive, but I never knew it was this expensive, and that there is so much money in the NAS. I think I will consider contesting for one of the seats at the assembly come next year’s elections”.

Labour demands full disclosure of lawmakers’ earnings
ORGANISED labour on its part said it is demanding full disclosure of the earnings of members of the National Assembly following the controversy trailing recent statement by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Lamido Sanusi, 25 percent of the nation’s budget is spent on National Assembly’s recurrent expenditure,  saying “this is another manifestation of crisis of governance in Nigeria.”

A Vice President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, Comrade Issa Aremu, who spoke to Vanguard, derided the Minister of Finance, Dr. Olusagun Aganga, for what he described as the Minister’s penchant for double-speaking and ambiguity; and commended the CBN Governor for standing firm to his statement that the National Assembly’s overhead cost is draining the nation’s economy.

Comrade Aremu lamented saying “if the different agencies of government like CBN and Ministry of Finance could not get their figures right, it spoke volume of the governance crisis plaguing Nigeria.

According to him, “we should commend the CBN’s Governor for standing on his position, compare to the Finance Minister who was just double-speaking and true to his character, being ambiguous. The burden is now on the Finance Minister to come clearer and stop being ambiguous. This was the same attitude the Finance Minister displayed during the debt and bankruptcy of NNPC’s saga. He should cultivate the habit of serving Nigeria instead of trying to please individuals.
“The mind-set of our lawmakers is not helpful to our democracy. They should tell us how much they earn. Whether 25 or 20 per cent, we demand total and full disclosure. It is a class crisis. The only fellow who is patriotic in this matter is the CBN governor.

“Our lawmakers should learn to be accountable and not harass the electorates. They should stop using public hearing to intimidate and harass Nigerians. Today, everybody knows what the ordinary worker earns. The official Minimum wage is N5.500. The new Minimum wage that is yet to be legislated upon is N18.000. So, we demand full disclosure of the lawmakers earnings. We need a system of governance where issue of Finance should be transparent and un-ambiguous. We need a Minister of Finance who will serve the nation and not try to please individuals, double-speak or ambiguous when the nation’s expects him to be clear and concise. It is very sad and unfortunate.”

CNPP hails Sanusi over 25% NASS overhead
For maintaining his position that 25% of the overhead of the Federal Budget is consumed by the National Assembly, NASS, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, commended the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi over his sage and courageous stand on the matter.

It however remarked that, the CBN governor “did not say anything new; for it is common knowledge that the unofficial directive principle of state policy in the past years is Food is Ready anchored on monumental corruption.” The CNPP in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu in Abuja, said, Sanusi displayed uncommon courage by confronting the lawmakers with the stark reality of their burden on the national treasury.

According the umbrella body of the registered political parties, “we challenge the NASS members to publicly tell the world whether they abide by the emolument and allowances benchmark prescribed the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC”.

A major operator in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry who spoke with Vanguard on condition of anonymity stated that the controversy is quite interesting and healthy for our democracy.

According to him the Central Bank Governor says the National Assembly gets 25 percent of the Nations overhead budget annually in an economy begging for infrastructural development, but the National Assembly says it is not spending up to that, rather it claims to be spending about 3.9 percent of the overhead budget cost.

Both Houses can not be up to a thousand persons. So why should even a thousand people lay claim to 3.9 per cent of the nation’s recurrent expenditure? That is simply outrageous, and it is too much!

I really think we should understand Mallam Sanusi very well. He did not mean to embarrass the legislators, all he is trying to say is that the Presidential system of Government as its being practiced in Nigeria is very expensive, and if one is running a government as hollow as our own then it is simply not the way to go for us as a nation.

Secondly, I find this argument or controversy very interesting because as important as the subject matter sounds you discover that only about 40 percent of the legislators were present.  So what does that tell you?  We have simply been paying for absenteeism, and I do not think we need to be accommodating such wastage now, and these are the people who are laying claims to about 17 per cent of the nations overhead budget.  That is quite huge! And a wastage of monumental proportion!!

Specifically, what I am saying is that it is high time we start considering a less expensive system of government if the much needed infrastructural development is ever going to happen, as it is impossible to eat your cake and have it.

Secondly if these people are truly receiving the said 25 per cent then the question on the lips of Nigerians should be what is their contribution to the national economy? And if they are saying it is 3.9 per cent then its still too much, because 3.9 per cent of the recurrent expenditure is quite a huge amount of money” he said”.

A top management staff of a major oil company who do not to be dragged into Nigeria politics said
“I think we are missing the point and chasing shadows with this whole expenditure issue. Why will Nigeria, a country that cannot meet its electricity needs, spend over 70 per cent of her total budget on recurrent expenditure? For me, the issue is not just about the NASS, what about the Presidency – President and his vice; members of the Federal Executive Council, the governors and their aides, even the parties?

“Between 1999 and now, what has changed in government and the civil services that has even suffered massive staff cuts to warrant the kind of overhead costs of N2.7trn that we’re debating about, and 10 times its value 10 years ago. That in a budget of N4.3trn, less than 20 per cent goes to Capital expenditure, and we do not think that something is wrong with the people in government?

An official of the Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, NALPGAM said “The face_off between the NASS and the CBN Governor is healthy for the nation, because it exposes everybody to the recklessness of the NASS. We need more people like Sanusi in government if government is serious about probity and accountability, and for him not to apologise for his comments shows he knows what he is talking about”.

The CBN Governor was surmmoned by the National Assembly purely to be intimidated. That was abuse of legislative power because Senator Omisore’s comments did not address the figures in question. Mallam Sanusi presented facts and figures which the Assembly could not controvert.

David Imafidon Adonri, General Manager, Lambeth Trust Investment Limited said “The geometric increase in overheads of the Assembly from about N 14 billion in 2008 to about N 17 billion in 2009 and to over N 100 billion in 2010 is calamitous. Because such overheads finance consumption, it is not beneficial to the capital market. The funds also migrate to the foreign exchange market where it piles downward pressure on naira’s exchange rate.

The massive volume of overheads of both the FGN. and NASS contribute significantly to escalating recurrent expenditure of government at expense of capital vote necessary for infrastructural development. In a country where majority of the people live on less than $2 per day, the scandalous overheads of the NASS is crime against humanity and betrayal of trust of the citizenry”.