Enemy of The People

THE PDP AS AN ENEMY OF THE NIGERIAN STATE.

An article online highlighting the situation of the Nigerian socio political situation from 1999- 2009 and what can be easily deduced from the article is that a group of Nigerians most of them found in the PDP, the ruling party since the country’s return to Democracy, from one scandal to another, the Party seems to be only interested in perpetuating itself in Power and not improving the lives of the Nigerian People…so much so it has an internal mechanism that supports mediocrity over ability, it is utterly disheartening that 10 years after the return of Civil Rule in this country we have continue to retrogress instead of Progress..Our (s)elected officials have continue to get richer while the electorates have continue while they pay homage to their (s) electorates

Sometime in the early part of the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the then Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Hamman Tukur, propounded a theory which he later went on to implement. Tukur reasoned that paying political office holders generous remunerations would ensure that they shunned corruption. He then went on to approve jumbo pay for them. But where RMAFC stopped, the National Assembly members have taken it even further.

More than a decade after, it is time to put Tukur’s theory to test. It should not be out of place to expect Nigeria to become the most corruption-proof country in the world by now. Why do I say so? Well, Nigeria surely harbours the highest-paid politicians in the whole wide world. At least, that is what one of the country’s most erudite men of the law profession, Prof. Itse Sagay, said last week. According to Sagay, each of the 109 Nigerian senators earns N240 million per annum, while his House of Representatives counterpart pockets N204 million in salaries and allowances. At the current exchange rate, the legislators’ pay amounts to $1.7million per senator and $1.45 million for each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives.

Compared with the more advanced democracies of the world, it is easy to mistake Nigeria as one of the most prosperous countries in the world, where public office holders swim in money. The renowned professor noted that an American senator “earns $174,000 while a UK parliamentarian earns about $64,000 per annum.” He also said, “In 2009, the federal legislators received a total of N102.8 billion, comprising N11 billion as salaries and N90.96 billion as non-taxable allowances. He did not stop there; he questioned the rationale in a legislator taking home $1.7 million in Nigeria when the President of the United States of America, undoubtedly the largest and richest economy in the world, President Barack Obama, earns $400,000 per annum. In the same vein, the British Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron, whose ancestors ruled over Nigeria until independence in 1960, earns just $190,000 a year.

Besides, the 10 principal officers of the Senate, Sagay explained further, are allocated N1.24 billion as quarterly allowances, while “other principal officers earn N78 million every three months.” Then came the bombshell: That the Senate President is on a monthly salary of N88.33 million, while his deputy is on N50 million.

It is really amazing that a group of people can sit down and appropriate such a stupendous amount of money for themselves in a country where over 70 per cent of the citizens are said to be living on less than one dollar per day. How can the legislators justify this amount of money in a country where about 12 million children are out of school and more than 50 per cent of the citizens have no access to clean drinking water? What is the quality of law that the legislators churn out that qualifies them to live in such obscene opulence?

Interestingly, the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was quoted in Tuesday’s newspapers as saying that the N74 billion demanded by the Independent National Electoral Commission for the review of voter register was too much. Ekweremadu told journalists, “I think for the purpose of election, it is reasonable: but (in) a country such as ours, where we have so much poverty, it is on the high side.” How come a person who never saw anything bad about the N102.8 billion spent on legislators is now saying that N74 billion to further the course of free and fair elections is too much?

This is not the first time Nigerians would be alarmed at the way politicians, and legislators in particular, have been allocating national wealth to themselves. Shortly before he took ill and eventually passed on, former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua ordered a downward review of the salaries and remuneration of public office holders, saying that “the present remunerations were untenable and unjustifiable in the present circumstances.” The National Economic Council, comprising the 36 state governors, Central Bank Governor and the Minster of Finance, also bought into Yar’Adua’s thinking then. Spokesman for NEC and Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, expressed the hope that “it will go a long way in reducing public expenditure”.

If any action was taken then, it is obvious by the current revelations that it did not go far enough as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Afe Babalola, in June, had to reecho that call for a review of the salaries of politicians in government. Aside from calling for a drastic reduction in the number of lawmakers, he said, “Everybody now wants to be a politician because politics has become the easiest way of becoming millionaire overnight. This is because our constitution has made political offices so lucrative.”

Another distinguished Nigerian and former member of the House of Representatives, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, alleged in February last year that estacodes of Nigerian lawmakers were among the highest – if not the highest – in the world. As a member of the House of Representatives, he was entitled to an estacode of $500 per day, while those of his colleagues in South Africa and Ghana were $80 and $60 respectively.

The situation has gone so bad that more than 70 per cent of national income now goes into paying salaries and allowances of political office holders who form less than one per cent of the Nigerian population. There is no money to revamp the country’s infrastructure that have continually been decaying over the years. There is no functional rail system for a country that once relied on this mass transit system for the movement of goods and humans. The former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, once said that Nigerian roads were worse than those in war-torn countries. The school system has also completely collapsed, just as the health care delivery system is in a shambles. According to the last Minister of Health, Professor Babatunde Oshotimehin, Nigeria lost N32 billion to foreign medical treatment annually. It is no longer fashionable for Nigerian children to school locally.

In terms of corruption, the intractable monster is still raging. That means the huge pay has not stemmed corruption as Tukur had made us to understand. In fact, Nigeria ’s ranking by Transparency International dropped from 121 in 2008 to 130 in 2009, out of 180 countries surveyed. Recently the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission boss, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, accused the House of Representatives of spending N3.7 billion on public hearing last year, saying they had limitless access to funds. But most of the investigations and oversight functions they embark on lead to nowhere. Up till now, the outcome of the investigation into the $15 billion reportedly spent in the power sector is yet to be out more than two years after, even though N100 million was allegedly spent on the exercise.

Prof. Ben Nwabueze recently called for a bloody revolution to clean the system. Not many Nigerians subscribe to this, but they need to take more than a passing interest in how their money is being spent and how they are governed. It is obvious that the current set of legislators cannot serve the interest of Nigerians. So, Nigerians need to make sure only tested and trusted people are voted into office in the coming elections. Efforts must also be made to have free and fair elections in which the wishes of the people count, not one that will produce treasury looters.

The National Assembly has been dominated by the PDP since the return of democratic rule, and the members of this hallowed chambers have shown that they are more interested in their pockets than in the welfare of the other 150 million Nigerians which according to statistics available that over 60 percent still live on less than 1 dollar a day…in 1999, they were living on about 4.50 dollars a day, 10 years down the line, the Standard of living has gone down, while our elected officials that were put there (elected or selected) to improve the lives of the Nigerian people…these economic indices has shown that the only lives they have improved are theirs and their cronies, Nigeria’s Legislature remains the Most expensive in the world, when other countries’ government are trying to cut cost. So better infrastructure and people oriented services can be provided, like the newly sworn in prime minister of the Uk had to do recently, but the opposite is the case.

Virtually, all progressive ideas that have been put forward towards the development of this country has been put down by the PDP dominated National assembly, the recent debate on the two party system for our election and others like the freedom of Information Bill, Almost all the changes required to enshrine true Federalism and make the constitution People- Friendly were thrown out by the two chambers Of NASS. Many of the major reforms recommended by the Justice Muhammed Uwais –led Electoral Reform to end the disgraceful elections held in the country were similarly rejected. The question is often asked: Who do the legislators represent? The list is endless

The handling of the sickness and subsequent death of Former president umaru Yar’adua …need less bellyaching Over the emergence of Namadi Sambo…Killings in Jos. Power Crisis…Simens …Wilbros…Ettehgate, Halliburton

So I dare to ask the question, since 1999, is there any section of our national life that has improved in the last 10 years, the answer is a deafening NO

Under the leadership of the self touted Largest Party in Africa, students in both Secondary and tertiary institution have had to spend the better part of their time at home than in school…idling away, Millions of Prospective University students write JAMB exam…More are denied than admitted…and even those admitted are not guaranteed to conclude their programmes as at when due, and after graduation then start to roam the streets for nonexistent Job

I hope one day when Nigerians are really tired for being taken for fools by our political class, they would all march and send them all packing my fear that it may lead to such a crises, one not witnessed in Nigeria before. Nobody plays the fool forever.