A recession is a terrible thing to waste. Beyond the pains, the economic downturn offers this nation and its people an opportunity to take hard but necessary decisions that were impossible in times of plenty.
This period is especially unique because the political leadership at the centre has exhibited the will to confront the vampires who have sucked the nation dry for ages. They may not be doing a perfect job, but they are having a go at it.
Now, necessity is forcing everyone to focus on how to get out of our bind.
Everywhere you look, families and companies are cutting back to cope. Luxuries and extravagancies are being slashed from budgets. Many middle class homes are suddenly discovering that it is impossible to keep up with the Joneses when the naira is exchanging at almost N500 to the dollar.
Banks and telecommunications companies, for long the picture of ruddy financial health, have been ruthlessly shedding staff as they struggle to stay afloat.
In government, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, at his presentation of the ‘Change Begins With Me’ initiative to the corporate world in Lagos during the week unveiled a long list of perks and privileges that have been cut by the Executive Branch because of the recession.
You may dismiss their inability of ministers to buy new cars – following the example of President Muhammed Buhari – as tokenism, but every kobo counts at a time like this.
Across the road at the National Assembly we’ve heard the leadership making all the sympathetic and politically-correct noises about how ‘things are tough’ and Nigerians are suffering. For our own good, the lawmakers have even shipped a slew of bills to the Executive which, ostensibly, contain the silver bullet that would terminate the recession.
But not for our caring lawmakers any nod at even the smallest of tokens to show that they, too, are willing to sacrifice at a time like this.
One of the priority projects for the senators in the last one year was the purchase of SUVs befitting their status as federal lawmakers. Never mind that some of them had just received loans to buy brand new cars. They justified the request for additional cars saying the fresh ones would be for official assignments.
In the face of public outrage the senators struggled unconvincingly to justify the timing of such huge financial outlay. But exhibiting the typical disdain of the average Nigerian office holder for public opinion, they went ahead after a fashion.
Not all senators ended up getting the new SUVs – only the presiding officers. Additionally, one senator from each of the 36 states also benefitted using the yardstick of rating.
But that is small beer compared to what Nigerians have always moaned about, that our federal lawmakers – unjustifiably – are among the highest paid on planet earth. Even with the economy on all fours they retain that dubious ranking!
The influential British magazine The Economist in a report two years ago estimated that Nigerian legislators ranked only below their Australian counterparts in their global survey – taking in annual salaries of between $150,000 and $190,000 per annum depending on exchange rates for 180 days of sitting.
By comparison their counterparts in Britain receive $105,400 yearly, United States ($174,000), France ($85,900), South Africa ($104,000), Kenya ($74,500), Saudi Arabia ($64,000) and Brazil ($157,600).
The report then makes the damning assessment that the average legislators’ pay is more than 50 times Nigeria‘s GDP per capita – and that, in a country where millions live on less than two dollars daily and the value of the minimum wage is now roughly $40 a month.
The foregoing is not to demonise the lawmakers but to point out that a bicameral legislature is a luxury for a country in Nigeria’s shape – and the recession is a wonderful opportunity to do something about it.
In April this year, Senegal scrapped the Senate to save money. Egypt did the same thing in 2013. In the last 20 years several other countries have done so.
But that is not likely to happen in a hurry here because our commitment to cutting waste and make savings in Abuja begins and ends with our lips.
Sometimes when I come across some Facebook campaign trying to interest Nigerians in a drive to ‘Scrap the Senate,’ I picture people banging their heads fruitlessly against the wall.
For the Senate to disappear, there would need to be a constitutional amendment. This bunch of politicians who have secured a lucrative and prestigious retirement in the upper chamber are not in a hurry to commit political suicide.
But imagine how much this country would shed with a unicameral system. According to BudgIT, between 2011 and 2014, the National Assembly received N150 billion yearly. This fell to N120 billion in the 2015 budget. The study shows that between 1999 and last year, allocations to the National Assembly amounted to N1.26 trillion.
As I said earlier, our lawmakers are so concerned about the recession that they have sent a bunch of bills to Buhari which they believe would turn things around. You don’t have to be clairvoyant to know that none of the bills prescribes downsizing the legislature. At least, the Executive made an effort by pruning the number of ministries.
In fact, the constitutional amendment process currently on in the National Assembly rather than looking for ways to divert funds to proper development projects, is focused on vanity items like creating new states, reshaping executive tenure and removal of immunity clauses.
Late in the week news broke of the decision of the House and Senate to invite Buhari to address them on what he’s doing about the recession. While they are at it, they should equally brief the president on what they are shaving off their bloated financial package to help the country out.
Anything short of that would amount to hypocritical posturing on the part of our ‘caring’ lawmakers.
In defence of Mama Peace
Nigerians are an interesting lot – but never more so than in this season of recession and rocky change. Now, depending on which side of the political divide we find ourselves, we defend the indefensible and rationalise that which is beyond the pale.
Take for instance the current bid by former First Lady, Patience Jonathan, to unlock about $22.5 million dollars which she claims belongs to her. She was not in the picture when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured a court order freezing the suspicious funds traced to some companies.
The firms in question have since pleaded guilty to money laundering charges. Out of the blues, Mrs. Jonathan shows up laying claim to the huge sums.
Confronted with searching questions as to how she earned the foreign exchange, we were suddenly informed the monies belonged to her mother. Don’t ask whether the old woman owned an oil bloc.
In her defence, a rent-a-crowd protest took place in Yenagoa on Thursday led by the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) during which the ‘protesters’ argued for release of the frozen funds.
Some of the ‘protesters’ reasoned this way: “Patience Jonathan is not the only First Lady in this country. A wife to former Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President and President … are you expecting her to be a poor woman?”
The fact is there’s no constitutional recognition for the office of the First Lady so there can be no official earnings accruing to a non-existing position. Secondly, her husband, no matter how generous his earnings in the office he occupied were, was never paid so lavishly in dollars to enable his spouse accumulate so much.
It is only in Nigeria that the richest people are those in government. President Barack Obama is not among the richest persons in the US. The wealthiest people in America, Britain and across the West are entrepreneurs, entertainers, sportsmen and professionals among others.
With these ‘youthful’ defenders of the indefensible reasoning this way, we should be greatly troubled about the future of the country.
