In a tepid attempt to show solidarity with the ordinary Nigerians, as the #Endbadgovernance protest was about to start, the House of Representatives, announced that her members will forfeit 50 percent of their salaries to the national purse as an act of sacrifice. Ever since the promise was made, controversy has trailed what constitutes the salary of the members of the House of Representatives, and most recently their Siamese twins, the Senate. Expectedly, the Representatives have claimed that their monthly salary is a meagre N600,000 and not the humongous salary and allowances which by some accounts is in the region of nearly N20 million, monthly.
Even before the members, sought to separate Paul from Barnabas, every Nigerian who has been following the controversies over the unlawful earnings of members of the National Assembly, knew they could only be referring to what should be their legitimate salary, and not the several unlawful allowances and perks they have over the years amassed as part of their illegitimate monthly earning. As the legislators know, what they should legitimately earn must be sanctioned by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), and not what they determine by their whims and caprices.
The 1999 constitution (as amended) in the Third Schedule Part 1N paragraph 32 eloquently provides: “The Commission shall have power to – (a) monitor the accruals to and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account: (b) review from time to time the revenue allocation formulae and principles in operation to ensure conformity with changing realities: Provided that any formula which has been accepted by an Act of the National Assembly shall remain in force for a period of not less than five years from the date of commencement of the Act.”
The Constitution in paragraph 32(d) further provides: “The Commission shall have power to determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders, including the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holder of offices mentioned in section 84 and 124 of this constitution.” Sections 84 and 124 deal with federal and state, executive and judicial officials, which are enumerated in the respective sub section 4, and does not include the legislators at federal and state levels.
So, the remuneration that members of the National Assembly should earn shall be determined by RMAFC. But that is far from what is obtainable in practice. Presently, members of the National Assembly, while receiving the salary recommended by RMAFC, also earn heavy loads of all manners of allowances and perks attached to their offices, which many Nigerians have rightly described as unconscionable and unconstitutional. By their actions, they pooh-pooh the provision of the constitution that sought to ensure that since the National Assembly has control over the national cookie jar, they shouldn’t help themselves to the cookies in the jar, indiscriminately.
In the 2024 budget, the salaries and allowances of the 109 senators will gulp N8.67bn, while the 360 members in the House of Representatives will get N24.43bn in salaries and allowances. But, according to a Punch newspaper report, out of the 19 allowances earmarked for the Senate President and his deputy, only five allowances were assigned specific figure. There are similar undisclosed figures for the other members of the National Assembly, and it is similar with the members of the state Houses of Assembly. One may ask, why such opacity, in the allowances of the members?
It is such opacity that makes some Nigerians pour invectives on the legislators, especially members of the National Assembly, with respect to their unearned allowances. This writer has written essays, arguing that the National Assembly can only legitimately earn salaries and allowances, approved by the RMAFC, as clearly provided by the 1999 constitution (as amended). While there might be corrupt practices in the executive and judicial arms of government, this writer has always argued that for the National Assembly to effectively exercise its power of oversight, it must earn within its constitutional boundaries.
The National Assembly cannot, while arguably abusing its expansive powers and control over public funds, expect Nigerians not to be offended. Their usual argument that what is appropriated to the National Assembly is insignificant, when compared to what is allocated to the care of the executive amounts to red herring. Moreover, by virtue of section 88 of the constitution, the National Assembly has powers to ensure that what is allocated to the care of the executive is appropriately used for purpose.
The recent protests, even with its omnibus hashtag, showed that the Nigerian youths are increasingly getting impatient with the status quo, and so, urgent steps must be taken to stave-off a national upheaval. For this writer, the National Assembly has an important role to play in monitoring and ensuring that the economic programs of this administration yields the promised fruits. They can ensure that monies earmarked for infrastructural developments are used for purpose, by virtue of the doctrine of checks and balances, in a presidential democracy.
That is a more effective way to ameliorate the hardship that made a lot of Nigerians to join the protest. Should the budgeted national resources be put to the uses they are earmarked for, many of the challenges facing the citizens would abate. The controversy over whether a member of the House of Representative, earns either N900, 000 or the N600,000 in a month, is a mere distraction. By some accounts, the members earn tens of millions every month, which explains their life style. It is therefore cunning for their spokesperson, to tell Nigerians they earn N600,000 monthly, unless they have become the biblical Widow of Zarephath, who was blessed by Elijah, and her jar of oil never ran out.
In the Bible story, Elijah on God’s mission to teach the Israelites a lesson caused a drought in the land. While hiding as he was commanded, God asked him to go to Zarephath, to stay with a widow, who will feed him, while the drought lasted. When he accosted the widow and asked her to make him a meal of bread, the woman informed Elijah that she had only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug, and she was gathering sticks to make fire, to cook the last meal, and after, they will die.
Undaunted, Elijah asked her, to first make a meal for him, from that meagre flour and oil, and that thereafter, her jar of meal and oil, will never run dry. And miraculously, it happened as Elijah predicted. So, when members of the House of Representatives offered to forfeit one-half of their salaries, giving the impression that they can survive on the remaining half, of N600,000, I wondered who the miracle-working prophet, that could help them survive on one-half of their salary, could be.
