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Tag: Lawmakers

  • Lawmakers urged to embrace Buhari’s peace move

    Lawmakers urged to embrace Buhari’s peace move

    The All Progressive Congress (APC) Chairmen Forum has urged aggrieved parties in the National Assembly leadership crisis to embrace reconciliatory moves by President Muhammadu Buhari and the party’s national leadership.

    The party chairmen, who issued a statement in Enugu at the weekend, signed by their publicity secretary and Enugu State Chairman, Dr. Ben Nwoye, expressed concern over the crisis originating from the election of the leadership of the Eighth National Assembly.

    “We are urging all the aggrieved NASS members to embrace dialogue and the re-conciliatory move being championed by Mr. President, and the National leadership of our great party for the sake of national interest and APC,” they said.

    The chairmen added that they met in Abuja for four days to deliberate on the crisis, adding that “during the period, we engaged in a re-conciliatory meeting with the leadership of the party in an attempt to seek resolution to the dispute”.

    According to the statement, the meeting, which was presided over by the Forum’s Acting Chairman, Alhaji Umar Haruna Muhammed of Kano State, lauded the efforts of the President and the party’s leadership towards laying the crisis to rest.

    “We wish to align ourselves with the reconciliatory steps taken so far by Mr. President and the leadership of the party. We want to also call on all parties to cooperate with the party’s leadership and Mr. President in the reconciliation.

    “It is our prayer, therefore, that this matter would be resolved expeditiously in the interest of the nation,” the forum said.

    Stressing the need for “one harmonious and happy APC family”, the APC chairmen pledged their continued and unalloyed support to the Buhari administration and the APC National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.

  • Lawmaking: social responsibility or self-enrichment?

    Lawmaking: social responsibility or self-enrichment?

    All the ideas emanating from the National Assembly regarding remuneration of lawmakers are far from the ethic of social responsibility, which requires people in leadership positions to accept an obligation to act for the benefit of society

    Even a few days into the new administration, it is becoming clear that some lawmakers are already acting as if they have lost the political will for change.

    Given the manner of choosing principal officers in the new National Assembly recently, it is not exaggeration for a public affairs observer or commentator to say that it is getting hard (or harder than in the days of Jonathan) to tell who and who in the legislature is working for APC’s manifesto of change or for PDP’s commitment to continuity or ‘business as usual.’ But today’s column is not about how and who got into the juicy positions in the Senate and the House of Representatives. After all, the ruling party has officially assured the public that it is ready to work with those elected into legislative offices, regardless of the initial controversy generated by the sidelining of 51 APC senators. Some people would say that the elite struggle for power in Nigeria is better left to the elites within the power circle to sort out. But citizens need to get intervene in the discourse of power politics before self-serving politicians drive and bury them in poverty.

    The interest today is to focus on level of remuneration for lawmakers in the new Nigeria of diminishing revenue from the easy source of foreign exchange that had driven individuals and organisations for decades to expect to be pampered with huge salaries and outlandish allowances. In the days of high revenue from petroleum, even the authors of the current constitution chose to give the power to determine what states and public office holders get as allocations and salaries/allowances to a group. The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is constitutionally charged with recommending what every stratum of the polity gets from proceeds from the oil flowing from wombs of the Niger Delta. Although RMAFC prides itself on its website as independent, it remains to be seen how much of that independence or autonomy has been used to plead for moderation in matters pertaining to remuneration of political office holders and lawmakers. RMAFC is on record as complaining about several allowances lawmakers awarded themselves in the past, an indication that lawmakers have taken liberty to exploit their positions.

    Whatever was the culture in the past, the new economic realities in the country now call for more critical thinking than was the case in the regimes of Olusegun Obasanjo, UmaruYar’Adua, and Goodluck Jonathan. The abundance that led to creation of 36 states, 774 local governments, over 400 House of Representative members, over 100 senators, and even recently to recommendations for moving the number of states from 36 to 55 appears to be drying up faster than the authors of the Nigeria of today could imagine.

    All the ideas emanating from the National Assembly regarding remuneration of lawmakers are far from the ethic of social responsibility, which requires people in leadership positions to accept an obligation to act for the benefit of society. For example, the claim by the deputy speaker that the National Assembly is a separate arm of the federal government with its own peculiarities does not suggest any readiness on the part of this APC man from Osun State to respond appropriately to the call for prudence and sensitivity to society’s needs. To say that a budget of 150 billion naira is not much because it is less than three per cent of the total budget is tantamount to ignoring the new realities on the ground. Similarly, the defence of over half a million naira wardrobe allowance for lawmakers by the new Senate President and the spokesperson for the RMAFC during his recent visit to the Senate leader also misses the point.

    While it may not be right to blame the 8th National Assembly for the largesse given to lawmakers directly or indirectly in the last sixteen years, it is proper to expect new legislators, particularly those who got elected on the platform of the party that promised Change to get critical and creative about how to end what citizens generally have considered as oversize budget to pamper lawmakers in particular. A country that has borrowed money to pay salaries even at the federal level is not in any position to justify giving its legislators salaries and allowances higher than what their counterparts earn in wealthier and more advanced countries or what senior public servants like judges, professors, permanent secretaries, generals, etc earn for serving the country on a full-time basis.

    Given that the long list of demands that the anaemic treasury inherited by the new government must have forced President Buhari to take to the G7, no legislator should need special persuasion to realize the need to cut out the culture of waste inherited from the past. Nigeria is still one of the poorest countries in the world, despite its huge petroleum revenue in the past. Over 65% of Nigerians are believed to live on less than 300 naira a day. Child and maternal mortality in Nigeria is higher than that of many of its neighbours. Education and health care are two major social services that have been in decline for years. Most Nigerians have access to electricity not for more than two hours a day. Most Nigerians have no access to potable water while about 98% of Nigerians travel on substandard roads on a daily basis. Most Nigerians working in the public sector do not get their salaries as and when due while pensioners in many parts of the country get their pension benefits usually in arrears. Apart from the special insecurity of Boko Haram, most of the roads and streets in the country are unsafe for any form of night-time economic activities. All of these happen even after the government at all levels owe over $60 billion, most of which have apparently been used to finance recurrent expenditures. What other evidence should any serious-minded lawmaker need to get real?

    There has been so much opaqueness about how much money is given to lawmakers as salary or allowance. While the basic salary of the average legislator looks normal, the list of allowances is scandalous: furniture, wardrobe, utilities, vehicle maintenance, leave, newspaper, constituency, recess, domestic staff, entertainment, personal assistance, etc. When added up, all these allowances and salaries put the Nigerian legislator as the highest paid lawmaker in the world. And this is despite the fact that lawmaking in Nigeria is a part-time activity, 120 to 180 days on the job in a year. Citizens serving the country in non-elective positions have to work 260 days in a year to earn a net income that averages between .001 to 10% of what lawmakers and other political office holders get in the name of allowances.

    As laudable as the decision of the new governor of Kaduna State to take only half of his salary is and as ridiculous as the readiness of the Bayelsa Senator to pass his wardrobe allowance to widows in his state and workers in Osun State sounds, what is needed at this point is not good-hearted philanthropy from overpaid political office holders in the executive or the legislature. The country’s economic condition, most graphically illustrated by borrowing money to pay salaries and the long list of requests President Buhari had to carry to Bavaria for consideration by members of the G7 group, calls for bold intervention.

    The onus to show a higher sense of responsibility in determination of what to pay federal, state, and local political office holders is not just on the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission. Lawmakers should seize the initiative to assure citizens that they are not in the National Assembly for the over generous emoluments inherited from sixteen years of profligacy in government. When citizens shifted majority of their votes from the PDP after sixteen years to the party that promised to change the way the country has been governed, they wanted to end a model of governance that appeared to privilege enrichment of the tiny political elite over the general welfare of citizens. Undoubtedly, the Resource Curse that is part of the rentier state nurtured in the last fifty years must have produced the regimes of indulgence that the 2015 election results had promised to change. If, as it has become clear, our Manna economy cannot sustain prodigal allowances of the tiny political elite, it stands to reason that the change to an economy based on productivity and taxation will not be able to sustain the extravagant allowances for lawmakers and members of the executive branch of government. It is time for citizens to get more vigilant.

  • Nyako admonishes Adamawa lawmakers

    Nyako admonishes Adamawa lawmakers

    Former adamawa State Governor Murtala Nyako has urged senators and members of the House of representatives to offer quality representation.

    The former Naval Chief spoke at a community reception in honour of his son, Navy Commander Abdulaziz Nyako, a senator representing Adamawa Central District.

    He charged the elected representatives to organise themselves as a family so that Adamawa will benefit from their services.

    The reception, which was attended by supporters of the former governor, was organized to celebrate the return of Nyako from exile and the the victory of his son.

    The Chairman of the occasion and two-time Speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Hassan Turaki, said the reason for organizing the event was to celebrate the return of Nyako, who has immensely contributed to the development of the zone.

    He said the people could not forget the human development strides of Nyako, which he instituted through the creation of various human development programmes, including the Special Assistant (S.A) and the agricultural and skills acquisition programs.

    “We voted your son because of the laudable human development programs you instituted when you govern this state. We shall continue to remember that goodwill forever,” he said.

    During his remark, the Director General of AbdulAziz Campaign and a chieftain of the APC in the zone Alhaji Isa Bagalci said it was always good for a human being to embrace selflessness in all his endeavors noting that the good seed planted by Nyako germinates into the election of his son to represent the senatorial zone.

    Corroborating the position of the two speakers, Adamawa State chairman of APC Alhaji Shuaibu Yamusa recalled that during his days as governor, Nyako has instituted various educational and youth empowerment programs that has touched the lives of many people hence the massive support the APC got in the last election in the state.

    Various groups including Local branch of Tabitaal Pulakuu International, Youth and Women groups presented accolades to the former governor and his son.

     

  • NASS: N9billion wardrobe allowance upset Nigerians

    NASS: N9billion wardrobe allowance upset Nigerians

    The newly sworn in 8th National Assembly have been accused of being allegedly entitled to the sum of N9billion as wardrobe allowance as from next week.

    Considering the fact that the said N9billion would not cover for other allowances such as housing, furniture and vehicle, which are the lawmakers entitlements, Nigerians have taken to the social media to express their displease.

    Similarly, management of the National Assembly is reportedly currently allocating offices to the 469 federal lawmakers in both chambers of the NASS ahead of their resumption on June 23 from the two-week recess that they embarked.

    Out of the said N9billion wardrobe allowance, each of the 360 lawmakers at the House of Representatives is expected to smile home with about N17.5 million while the 109 senators would have a share of N21.5 million each.

    Meanwhile, the new senate president, Senator Bukola Saraki in a different report on Tuesday, promised that the 8th Senate will work to prevent revenue leakages in the country.

     

    Find social media reactions below:

     

  • Fayose seeks lawmakers’ help

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has solicited the cooperation of the House of Assembly for the development of the state through quality legislations.

    Fayose said he would need the support of the Assembly to transform the state through the implementation of his administration’s six-point Restoration Agenda.

    The governor spoke yesterday at the opening of a three-day retreat for the lawmakers at Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort, Ikogosi-Ekiti.

    The theme of the retreat is “The Place of Legislature in Democracy”.

    Represented by Deputy Governor Kolapo Olusola, Fayose said the retreat became necessary to sharpen the skills of the lawmakers.

    The Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, regretted what he called “the cat and mouse relationship” that existed between the last Assembly and the executive.

  • Oyo lawmakers begin training

    Oyo lawmakers begin training

    Members of the Oyo State House of Assembly yesterday began a three-day legislative training at MicCom Golf Hotels and Resorts, Ada, Osun State.

    The Eight Assembly was inaugurated last Wednesday with Michael Adeyemo elected as Speaker.

    The training, according to the Chief Press Officer of the Assembly, Lekan Kolade, is aimed at equipping the 32 lawmakers in the rudiments and processes of lawmaking for effective performances.

    Adeyemo urged members to take full advantage of the training to be able to discharge their duties effectively.

    Adeyemo applauded the financial commitment of Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

    Topics to be covered include functions of the legislature, motions and how a bill becomes law and committee system in the legislature.

  • APC to its lawmakers: stick with Lawan, Gbajabiamila

    APC to its lawmakers: stick with Lawan, Gbajabiamila

    Members back party nominees

    Ahead of tomorrow’s proclamation of the eighth National Assembly, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which controls majority seats in the Senate and the House of Representatives, yesterday cautioned its members against going against its consensus candidates on the floor.

    At the weekend, the party held straw polls in Abuja where Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) emerged as consensus candidate for Senate President. Senator George Akume was picked for Deputy Senate President.

    House of Representatives member Femi Gbajabiamila (Surelere Constituency, Lagos) was nominated for speaker. Alhaji Tahir Monguno (Monguno/Tahir Constituency, Borno State) was picked for deputy speaker.

    But the camp of Senator Bukola Saraki boycotted the meeting.

    For the House of Representatives, the supporters of Yakubu Dogara, who is alo vying for speaker, protested. They have vowed to present their candidate on the floor of the House for the position tomorrow.

    But the APC said last night it had started reaching out to its members who might be aggrieved following the primary. It requesting them to put their interest below that of the party.

    National Secretary Mai Mala Buni, in a statement, also told members not to go against the party’s s decision, saying “it will be a shame” if the party, in spite of its majority, cannot pick the parliamentary leaders of its choice.

    He said: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) is reaching out to all its members in the incoming eighth National Assembly who may be aggrieved after the emergence of the party’s official candidates on Saturday.”

    The party said “it is natural for some members to be disappointed by the outcome of the straw poll that was conducted to select the party’s official candidates for the post: Senator Ahmed Lawan for Senate President and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila for Speaker, House of Representatives.”

    Buni added: “We must put the interest of our party above personal interests and avoid a situation whereby any other candidates, apart from those picked by the party, will emerge as Senate President and House Speaker on Tuesday.

    ‘’Any outstanding issues will be resolved by the party so we won’t go into Tuesday’s election with more than one candidate each for the two posts, Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives,’’ it said, adding that “it would be a shame if, despite its majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, the APC is unable to produce a Senate President and a House Speaker of its choice.”

    The APC explained that its role in ensuring a common front within the party ahead of Tuesday’s election “is that of an honest broker”, saying its goal of ensuring that the party does not go into the election with more than one candidate for each post has now been achieved.

    The party appealed to all aggrieved members to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign, in the overall interest of not just the party but the entire nation.

  • Don challenges lawmakers on constituency projects

    A don, Prof. Ladipo Adamolekun has urged the incoming legislators in both the states and National Assemblies to willingly get rid of the provision for constituency projects from their budgets.

    He said this would prove that they have embraced the change for which Nigerians voted them into office.

    Delivering a lecture on “The Role of Legislators in Good Governance” during a Sunday Service at the Archbishop Vining College Of Theology, Akure, the Ondo State capital, Prof. Adamolekun noted that the oversight roles of the lawmakers had always been total failure.

    At the event, which was attended by the State Commissioner for Education, Mr. Jide Adejuyigbe who represented Governor Olusegun Mimiko, the guest lecturer explained that a good number of constituency projects are uncompleted.

    He said: “Since legislators cannot assure oversight over their own projects, the whole idea is an anomaly. More concretely, it is a huge wastage; a significant number of legislators simply convert fund for constituency projects into additional allowances.

    “The idea of legislators’ constituency projects that was first introduced in Africa in Kenya in 2003 must not be allowed to take root in Nigeria. The good news is that Kenya’s Parliamentarians’ Constituency Development Fund Act (2013) was challenged by civil society groups and declared unconstitutional by a High Court in February this year.”

    He also advised the legislators to focus on legislations that would ensure progress towards the achievement of good governance.

     

  • Anxiety in Ekiti over Fayose’s, lawmakers’ row

    Anxiety in Ekiti over Fayose’s, lawmakers’ row

    EKITI State Governor Ayo Fayose said yesterday that any attempt to impeach him by the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers would amount to violation of a court order.

    Fayose, who spoke with reporters at the Government House following reports that the lawmakers were on their way to hold a sitting at the House of Assembly complex, warned them against setting the state ablaze.

    The governor said he did not want the blame of the consequences of the “invasion to be laid at his doorstep”.

    Brandishing copies of the court order, which ruled that parties in the Assembly leadership suit should maintain status quo ante bellum, Fayose advised the APC lawmakers to respect the order.

    The suit was filed by the Assembly’s factional speaker, Dele Olugbemi, and six other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers. The defendants are the Inspector General of Police, 19 APC lawmakers, Clerk of the House and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    He also showed reporters copies of cheques to substantiate his claim that the lawmakers were paid their entitlements.

    Arguing that elections are over, Fayose said the plot to impeach him from office with barely five days to the end of the tenure of the lawmakers portend grave dangers for the state.

    He accused the APC lawmakers of dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari in their bid to get him removed from office, saying he still enjoys the support of Ekiti people, who elected him.

    Fayose said: “They are coming to town claiming that they are removing the governor. This court order says that status quo ante bellum as at 23rd of April be maintained pending the determination of the Motion on Notice.

    “At the time of the order, Omirin was not the Speaker in the face of the law. The court warns that no action should be taken until the case is determined.

    “We are worried about the security of the state because there is no way their coming will not cause agitation. We have served the court order on the Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner of Police, the Director General of SSS and the Director of SSS.

    “The IG has warned that nobody should violate the court order because we wish to maintain post-election order. There is no way their coming will not cause agitation in the state.

    “The order warned that the court must not be overreached. Omirin went back to court to withdraw the case and a N100,000 cost was awarded against him”.

    The governor said the lawmakers’ entitlements have been settled, claiming that they came to the state to collect the cheques.

    “They invited me to Akure and I went there to meet them at their hotel room.

    “The CP went there under the permission of IG and Director of SSS under the permission of DG of SSS. At the meeting, they said they wanted me to pay their salaries and as a leader, I consented .

    “They said they wanted cheques. All the 19 of them and the record is in the ledger of the Ministry of Finance. The cheques were issued and they signed for the cheques,” he said.

    But, there was tension in some parts of Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, yesterday morning following reports of the plan by the APC lawmakers to hold a sitting inside the House of Assembly complex.

    Some major roads in Ado Ekiti were blocked by suspected members of the drivers’ unions with barricades, but the roads were later cleared by riot policemen.

    More riot policemen have been drafted to the state to prevent the breakdown of law and order.

    Suspected thugs have been mobilised to the vicinity of the Assembly complex where they are ‘waiting’ for the lawmakers.

    When The Nation visited some parts of the city, including the House of Assembly area and adjoining streets, “thugs” were milling around, standing in groups in some locations.

    Although they were not allowed near the House of Assembly complex by the armed policemen keeping vigil in the area, the hoodlums were observing events from safe distance.

    Some of the places where the thugs were found include an uncompleted petrol station at Awedele Road junction, an uncompleted block of the State Secretariat complex at the back of the Assembly complex, under a tree beside Ekiti Parapo Square and the NUJ Secretariat near NTA Ado-Ekiti.

    Many police vehicles, including pick-up vans and Armoured Personnel Carrier, were stationed around the Assembly complex.

    Riot policemen deployed to the area were conducting stop-and-and-search and barricaded some portions of NTA Road, State Secretariat Road and the road leading to the Judges’ Quarters.

    The thugs laying siege in the vicinity of the Assembly complex were later dislodged by riot policemen.

    Vehicles belonging to drivers’ unions were parked in the vicinity of the Government House with the union members standing by.

    Bonfires were lit in places like Irona/Isato junction, Ijigbo Roundabout and Omisanjana junction.

    Reports reaching Ado-Ekiti indicated that Ado-Aramoko-Ilesa Highway has been blocked by thugs at Itawure junction, preventing vehicles from coming into and leaving the state from Osun State boundary area

  • We haven’t received any payment, say Ekiti APC lawmakers

    We haven’t received any payment, say Ekiti APC lawmakers

    The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly have refuted a report that Governor Ayodele Fayose had paid their outstanding salaries and allowances.

    They claimed that the embargo on their salaries and allowances has not been lifted, adding that the payment or non-payment of their financial entitlements cannot prevent them from defending the constitution which they swore to protect.

    A statement by Speaker Adewale Omirin’s Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, said the report was mischievous, lacking the basic tenet of journalism to always report facts in place of rumours and unfounded allegations.

    The lawmakers said they were shocked that the reporter did not dwell on their responses when he called them, preferring to file his report based on rumour, blackmail and outright lie.

    They said: “It is shocking that the reporter chose not to believe us but overzealously believe in the purported sources that thrive on falsehood, lies and propaganda.

    “The reporter in one breath said his investigation revealed that the lawmakers had been paid, yet he reported that both Fayose and the lawmakers did not confirm the report as they refused to talk to him.

    “If this were the case, then who are the sources that confirmed to the reporter that the lawmakers had been paid?

    “To make matters worse, contrary to the reporter’s claim that we did not talk to him, we told him at our end that we have not been paid.

    “Apart from getting this fact from us, the Speaker’s media aide told him the same and so we are surprised that the reporter is claiming that he received no information from us.

    “In fact, as at Saturday night, the alerts we received from our bank were debit alerts and so we wonder where the reporter got his story.

    “It is unfortunate that just because the reporter wanted to file an exclusive report for his paper, he went ahead to report this falsehood motivated by blackmail.

    “Let us even agree without conceding that we were paid our lawful entitlements, what favour does the governor do to us by that after illegally cutting short our tenure by seven months and putting us in harrowing inconveniences in addition to his brazen rape on the constitution?

    “Must payment of our legal entitlements prevent us from defending the constitution which we swore to protect?

    “Where are the indications of payment when embargo is placed on our accounts by the governor? Even those who should know in government are wondering where the reporter got his story because there was never any payment to the lawmakers.

    “This is irresponsible journalism at its worst and it is unfortunate that this is coming from a reputable medium.

    “We know that this is exactly what the governor would be telling the press when he conceded to pay us to forgo resuming our duties, which we rejected.

    “When the reporter was calling the Speaker, his media aide and later the lawmakers, the response he got was that they had not received any alert.

    “In fact as we speak, the governor‘s embargo is still on our accounts and nobody has been notified that he or she has been paid and so we wonder where the reporter got his information.”