By Denrele Animasaun

“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” — Aristophanes

I am sure there are many Owolabis up and down the country and many may have succeeded in ending their lives. It is not realistic to expect people to work for nothing and expect an increase in productivity.  This is wholly inhumane and insane. Eighteen out of the thirty-six states owing salaries and their coffers are empty.

The states owing workers, according to the Nigeria Labour Congress are Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Zamfara

A decent society is one that treats its most vulnerable well. We are nowhere near decent in fact; we are very far away from decent. A friend of mine, Naheem Kujenya said of Nigerians: “Nigerians love every distraction and blather of its pathetic polity but good governance; hence the frivolity of idle chatter is a national culture or pastime. And, to participate in mediocrity of the nation’s democracy, the governed dramatically exhibit their share of sentimental intelligence with useless gossips and innuendos than to demand for accountability and worthy performances from the handlers of our national affairs. Invariably, attention is lost as the miscreants’ loot the treasury and nothing tangible is achieved but status quo. The desire and hope for a better country must include attitudinal changes of the entire citizenry to divorce triviality of thoughts and deeds together with the riddance of wealth-pursuit mentality with every government dealings”. I fully agree with Naheem.

Any elected politician his/her  salt should work tirelessly to address this impasse. Deal with the issue at hand. As of now, Nigerians are struggling to deal with very basic needs; air (polluted), food (expensive),drink(water does not  come free in some part of the country), shelter(extortionate and if you  fall  behind in payment, you  are evicted). Security (lacking and crime, free for all)

Last week, I purposely did not talk about the goings on in the House of Assembly; I find it trivial and a distraction.

Emperor’s new clothes

The  newly inaugurated National Assembly seems to rub salt into the wounds of many impoverised Nigerians  as they are set to receive a staggering  8.64 billion naira ($43 million) to spend on clothes. Wardrobe allowance for both chambers of the National Assembly, 109 members of the Senate receiving 21.5 million naira ($108,000) each and 360 members of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, to receive 17.5 million naira. The National Assembly will also get furniture and car loan allowances. About time that Nigerian lawmakers rethink the pay structures. Fattening their guts while  majority of  Nigerians  starve is putting cart   before the horse. This irresponsible behaviour, flies in the face of any conscientious thinking. I presume from the Nigerian lawmaker, if the masses are crying for bread, they tell them to eat Cake!

Unless, these lawmakers are gold standard individuals and they are each very good at what they do: representing the needs of their people and pressing for changes in the National Assembly then, they are not worth the amount they are about to receive.  In a report by THE ECONOMIST, it seems that Nigerian federal legislators with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum (N30.6m) makes them the highest paid lawmakers in the world. In  a  country where majority of the population survive on $2.00 a day, the lawmakers cannot  justify their bulging pay packet. Below is pay of some countries lawmakers’ salaries.

American lawmaker earns $15,080.00 (N2.3m) per month. Ghana, $46,500.00;Indonesia, $65,800.00;Thailand, $43,800.00;India, $11, 200.00;Italy, $182,000; in the United Kingdom, a lawmaker earns $8,686.00(N1.3m) monthly, in France, a legislator earns $6,754.00 (N1.03m) monthly.  So with the average Nigerian earning $2,249.00 a year as against $46,350.00 of the US Average, this makes the  Nigeria federal lawmakers the highest paid in the world, and each earn more than the  President of America!

So if the lawmakers are really concerned that majority of the country’s workers are upaid, and then they should put their money where their mouth is. The money allocated would pay 500,000 civil servants and some left over!

So  from one lone voice, a Senator, Sola Akinyede, Ekiti, confesses it’s outrageousness, and states that “Honestly, l think it’s unfair. I’m also guilty of it because l benefitted from it as a senator. It’s unfair for us elite to arrogate so much of the country’s resources to ourselves and still expect economic development.” True, so what is been done to address this? Let us start.

This gravy train has got to stop or Nigeria will grind to a halt. There is a big elephant in the room. In fact, there is a big elephant that is being overfed to the detriment of the majority of the populace. We need to address the looting of the coffers by our legislators.

While majority of Nigerians go hungry, the lawmakers cannot justify their salaries. The president should act to put this to right. There are no words to describe this ostentatious abuse by few to the majority of the people.  Let’s be clear, this can no longer be the way of life for of Nigerian legislators. Nigeria deserves better, these honourable men and women should be accountable to the people. The priority for Nigeria now is to pay overdue salaries to workers, better security, diversify our economies, less reliance on the federal coffers, reduce corruption and crime, and reduce mismanagement. We need good roads, regular power supply, better education, investment and health care. Our young should be in education, training or employment. Time to change the mind-set and no better time than the present.