Parting shots

Adeniran: If the law is made to work, nobody will legislate jumbo pay for themselves. There should be checks and balances so that the amount of stealing will reduce. The people should organize themselves to a pressure group and not compromise their integrity.

Onigbinde: The National Assembly should step up and understand its key role. Rigorous transparency has to come from them and if they cannot account for them, they cannot ask other arms how they spend their budget.

Ambakederimo:  In all of these, I will hold the media responsible, the media breaks stories of how public funds are being stolen. The media should should be at the vanguard of the fight against corruption.

Ndujihe:” People should take active part in politics. More work needs to be done. Whatever is paid anybody must be in tandem with economic realities in the country, it must be reviewed from time to time.

Mumumi:  The National Assembly is the symbol of democracy and it is in the interest of the National Assembly to be open to Nigerians.

Malpractice over constituency projects: panelists took turns to fault lawmakers on constituency projects.

Adeniran: The issue of constituency projects should not come up if our institutions were working. The budget circle should start from the people, they should sampe the opinion of the people. This is what should constitute the items in the appropriation bill. Some of us did not give any qualms when the issue of padding came up. Constituency project budgets should not be ceded by the legislator, it should be given to the MDAs, it is not their role to build roads. People should understand the principle of power and the principle of checks and balances.

Onigbinde: Constituency project is seen as a personal project of the lawmaker. There are worst cases of constituency projects. There are so many ridiculous cases of how constituency projects have been abused. I am of the opinion that it should be scrapped.  The Nigerian elite has never been bold.

Ambakederimo: I see it as a means to feed the appetite of some people and it must be curbed. it has never helped us and it will not help us no matter what anybody wants to say. Let us stop deceiving ourselves. The problem we have is that a lawmaker leaves his duty of lawmaking and turns to be a contractor. The level of corruption is still high, nothing has changed, these things must stop.

Ndujihe: It boils down to the issue of transparency. The lawmakers know their constituency and they know the need of the people, they are expected to hold townhall meetings with the people to know their needs. Some lawmakers are greedy but on the long run, the people bear the brunt. if the projects are to be handled by the lawmakers, we must hold the lawmakers to account.

Mumumi: To me, it is a terrible idea for a lawmaker to say he wants to execute a project, a legislator is expected to make laws. You cannot do the two at the same time.

Double pay for legislators:

Mumumi: In an economy that cannot pay regular salaries, is it justifiable for such state to set aside money for the payment of a former governor? It becomes a matter of lack of good faith.  The idea of a pension policy is not applicable to a politician. It is never done anywhere in the world, it is not only immoral. Our politicians do not think about history.

Ndujihe: Double pay should not be entertained. we should get a law that should stop that. There should be a law, democracy is work in progress but since we are new, we should get a law in place and stop that. If you are a pensioner and you get elected, your entitlement should be suspended until you leave office.

Ambakederimo: We all have to be sincere. Why should the office of a governor be made pensionable? The House of Assemblies are rubber stamp, there is no accountability anymore. It is a very sad development that we seek public office to satisfy ourselves. We must begin to ask questions whether what we are doing is right or wrong. We have to look into some of these things.

Onigbinde: It is a big problem. The Lagos State House of Assembly is also making attempts to ensure that Speakers of the House of Assembly are pensionable. They argue that if a governor is receiving pensions, why shouldn’t the Speaker. This will not go away because the House of Assembly that should look into this is now a rubber stamp. Our political leaders have gone astray and we have exert public pressure on these issue because they are draining public.

Adeniran: People have mortaged their conscience, they are no longer scrupulous. Most Nigerian youths have been demoralised, they want to go into politics but they do not have any idea to better the lot of the poeple. It is an index of systemic failure, we do not have records. Most of these salaries and pensions are not in the data base. If social justice is meted out to people misrepresenting people at the national level, they will behave properly. Our institution should be made to work.

Jumbo pay and the culture of secrecy

The panelists expressed divergent views on the culture of secrecy as regards the jumbo pay of legislatures and how it can be addressed.

Adeniran:

The culture of secrecy did not start today, it started from the era of the military. Before we got the Freedom of Information Act passed, it was an herculean task. The culture of secrecy is guided by the extant law that protects public offices. They know it is scandalous for Nigerians to know how much they earn. To stop the regime of secrecy, we still have to go back to our laws.

Onigbinde:

Corruption is the problem. The National Assembly intentionally does this. The National Assembly has spent over N1.3 trillion in this dispensation. The transparency aspect has to be there, we need to query the regime of secrecy. The secrecy boils down to corruption. There is need for retrospection, if the lawmakers understand their role, they will not take it likely.

Ambakederimo: The only i propose we can get out of it is the continous engagement of the National Assembly. We always want to blame the military for everything but it is time for us to sit up and create a path way for ourselves. They have amassed so much money for themselves that they can cause dissaffection. It is a very sad development that we find ourselves in this situation. They do not talk about anything that affects their budget.

Ndujihe:  I support any move that will get the National Assembly to be accountable. It is when we get the National Assembly to be transparent, that is when we will get other arms of government to be transparent. The lawmakers have a constituency to return to and they will be held accountable. I think lawmakers need help and the need they need is to develop the structures. We have to build our institutitions and the National Assembly is important.

Mumumi: The most important arm of government is the legislature. It is important that the National Assembly operates in the open so that people will have confidence in them. Once the National Assembly is open and transparent, other arms will be transparent. It is the interest of the National Assembly to be open.

Our legislators’ jumbo pay: Why Nigerians are angry

Debo Adeniran, a Consultant Educationalist, is the Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL)

They are not properly renumerated to the extent that the amount of work is commensurate with the pay they get. when you hire somebody to work for you, you hire him to solve problems for you. our legislatures are the problems we have. I agree that they are the symbol of democracy but they have not solve the problems we hired them to solve. They don’t have enough qualifications. if you take so much and deliver so little, it shows they are over paid.

A legislator should be the voice of his constituency in government, he should be close to his constituency and identify those areas of need and take it to the legislature. the hue and cry comes up because many of the legislature believe they can think on behalf of their constituency. The reason why people are agnry is because they do not see the service.

Comrade Joe Ambakederimo, Convener, South South Reawakening Group

The lawmakers are not showing good examples to their constituencies, they behave as if they are they are alpha and omega. It is a sad development. Nigerians must continue to ask questions and that is the only way to put them on their toes. So many people do not know their councilors.

Clifford Ndujihe, Deputy Political Editor, Vanguard Newspaper

For me, the legislature is the first estate of the realm and so much is expected of them. Because they are the first, we want dividends of democracy delivered. A lot is expected from them because they are the closet to the people. When we talk about this jumbo pay, the first thing that comes to mind is to go to him and seek for financial assistance. When such happens, the lawmaker goes into hiding. Because they are the less developed, they are the most vilified. Over time, the legislature has been put in bad light. People do not really understand the work the legislature does. If we were in a military rule, no one would be talking about what a lawmaker earns.

Adetounbo Mumuni, Executive Director, SERAP

In a democracy, it is about the people and once the people who are supposed to be served are not feeling the government, it is compulsory for people to be agitated. Based on the level of work they do, they are over paid. The center point of the government must be about the people. Nigeria has the highest paid legislature in the world. No civil servant, legitimately can buy a new car but a legislator can buy a new car and that is why Nigerians are angry. What we are saying is that the legislature must look it. We say Nigeria is coming out of recession but our legislatures are living larger than life.

Oluseun Onigbinde, co-founded Nigeria’s civic tech organization, BudgIT

The bane of the issue is that the National Assembly does not respect itself when it comes to transparency. Therre is something the National Assembly is not telling us. What does the National Assembly do with N130 billion annually? It is a trasversty. Beyond the budget published by the National Assembly, they should give us a statement of account of how they spent their budget. We spend more than the budget of the South African parliament.