Nigeria: How much do we pay our lawmakers? - Part II

Back on the streets

The Nigerian youth marched out to our legislative houses all around the country on Thursday the 26^th of September 2013.

On Twitter, they mustered and gathered organised under the Twitter hashtag of #OurNASS where Nigerians demanded accountability, transparency and better representation. [Al Jazeera]

The occupation of elected political office had long shifted from the call to service to what was self-serving interests exemplified by outrageous remunerations that make the eyes water.

A salary to feast on

It is the long held belief that our democracy is both profligate and extravagant, it is safe to assume that the cost is unsustainable.

However, when the people congregated at the National Assembly in Abuja, some senators braved the crowds and came out to chat with the people where for the very first time a senator presented his payslip detailing the salary for one month paid in January 2010, in the previous electoral cycle as tabulated below:

Without considering inflationary changes and reassessments up to 2013, this alone presents an interesting reading on the percentages scale.

Multiples beyond belief

A senator will take 735% in allowances beyond his basic salary monthly with 200% going to housing and 250% going to managing a constituency office.

If the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) deductions total more than the basic salary, you then wonder if the allowances are taxed too.

Besides this, the vehicle loan is 400% of annual basic salary, but if a term is 4 years, how does a senator pay off that loan without seeking extra funds over and above the salary?

It would mean the legislator will would have either to meet that from the allowance pool or engage in other business activity to meet possible shortfalls, this remuneration structure is uneconomical and presents the framework for nefarious activity, possibly corruption.

Not sustainable

What does not show in this salary payslip is the furniture allowance, which is 75% of annual salary paid in a lump sum at the commencement of legislative tenure and 5% for housing allowance.

We still need to get a current figure representing what we pay our legislators but in percentage terms with reference to the basic salary, it is unlikely as I have said before that any private sector job rewards people this well, this democracy at this rate and cost is unsustainable.

Other reading

Nigeria: How much do we pay our lawmakers? - Part I

Nigeria: The relative cost of our democracy is unsustainable – AkinBlog.nl

Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) – About page.

Senator earns N12m yearly, says RMAFC – The Nation

Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances etc, (Amendment) Act of 2008

Nigeria: How much do we pay our lawmakers? - Part I

How much do we pay our lawmakers?

Getting round the inscrutability of the remuneration for Nigerian legislators has been a completely fraught exercise that none of the organisations with the function of regulating such appear to have a handle on.

However, when the Economist blew the lid off the exorbitant salary packages of the Nigerian Senators a few weeks ago as I wrote in this blog [1], the uproar that followed especially on social media meant that it was impossible to ignore and something had to be done.

A moribund commission

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) [See their About page here[2]], is empowered to:

"Determine the remuneration appropriate to political office holders, including the President, Vice-President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holders of the offices mentioned in Section 84 and 124 of the Constitution."

They have through this news story [3] gleaned from a newspaper advertisement released some information regarding the salaries of the Nigerian legislators but we are left with many more questions than what this red meat to the dogs of dissent was supposed to sate.

A guesstimate at best

Whilst the figures published by the Economist might be in dispute, the Economist asserts that their figures are for 2013, whereas the figures released by the RMAFC are in their words, ‘has been the official remuneration package since February 2007 till date’, which makes one wonder whether the salaries and allowances of our legislators have remained the same for 6 years despite inflation, the global financial crisis and two elections – that stretches the limits of incredulity, it really does.

Now, the Commission has taken it upon itself to do the following:

“Accordingly, the Commission, therefore, considers it most appropriate and necessary to provide the actual details of present remuneration package for political, public and judicial office holders to avoid misinformation and misrepresentation of facts capable of misleading citizens and members of the international community.”

They don’t really know

And what do they have?

“According to the RMAFC, the emoluments for ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service and Chairmen of Constitutional Bodies are close to those of the Senators …”

One might read that to mean they do not have the actual figures because, they reference that the “Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances etc, (Amendment) Act of 2008, states the actual amount being paid to legislators and other public officers, adding, however that “any other allowance (s) enjoyed by any political, public office holder outside those provided in the Remuneration Act of 2008 is not known to the Commission and the Chief Accounting Officer should be held accountable””, I guess that means they really do not have all the information.

That is because, the said, Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances etc, (Amendment) Act of 2008 [Viewable here as a PDF [4]] does not include the salaries of the any of the legislators, however, we have a general idea as to why seeking political and public office in Nigeria is quite a lucrative career move.

I commiserate

I can understand what Zakari Mohammed, the spokesman for the House of Representatives meant when he said, “Whatever is being written is mere exaggeration and does not reflect what is accurate. They fail to realise that what we take as salaries is different from what we use in running our offices.” Even accounting for what it takes to run an office, that would mainly be staff and other outgoings amounting to about 250% of basic salary with about 550% of basic salary in allowances to pocket. It still begs the question, what is accurate?

Then the RMAFC concludes with, “It is, therefore, wrong and misleading to add up allowances irrespective of whether they are regular, refundable or non-regular, as the regular annual emoluments of political and public office holders.”

Honestly, RMAFC, if we were to add all that into the mix, the Nigerian Senator remuneration package will come to an eye-watering 1,505% of basic salary, and the other 225% for furniture? It breaks the bank to smithereens – Nice work if you can get it, I say.

The table of the Nigerian Senator Salary Package

The table below was derived from the figures supplied by the RMAFC [3] and as far as accuracy is concerned, they are only as good as 2007.

[1] Nigeria: The relative cost of our democracy is unsustainable – AkinBlog.nl

[2] Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) – About page.

[3] Senator earns N12m yearly, says RMAFC – The Nation

[4] Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Salaries and Allowances etc, (Amendment) Act of 2008

Nigeria: Our exorbitant government

The brood of corruption

It can be so easy to be blind-sided with the claims and counter-claims of Nigerian politicians and lose sight of the serious piece of information that underlays the mudslinging.

The former President Olusegun Obasanjo had in a recent interview accused the National Assembly of corruption and offered examples and figures to justify his claim.

However, members of the minority parties did not take this lying down, they accused the ex-president of grandstanding, spreading falsehoods without substantiation and rounded that up with saying he was their grandfather in corruption [1].

Slush funds to each for favours

The conflated interviews and statements of the President Obasanjo and various minority members of the National Assembly give an interesting insight into the workings of our legislature and probably our democracy too.

The president opined that the legislators allotted bogus allowances to themselves and inflated budgets with the view to profiting from the allocations because they chose their preferred contractors and consultants in the execution of the projects.

The legislators accepted that accusation then confirmed that President Obasanjo in the quest for a third term in government bribed legislators with NGN 50 million (c $330,000) each, then challenged the press to seek audited sources of income of the ex-president through his tenure.

Cost of corrupt enterprise

They were all agreed that politicians are corrupt but tried to subscribe to pedantry by asking the ex-president to identify specific legislators who are corrupt, but that is beside the point.

The core issue is that the Senate costs 3% of the national budget, no mention is made of the additional cost of the Representatives, but even if that cost an additional 2%, it beggars belief that such a non-productive sector of country can drain 5% of the budget.

One senator offered that the recurrent expenditure in our democracy always exceeds the capital expenditure, the latter being what really benefits the people.

Each legislator according to the ex-president now costs more than NGN 250 million (c. $1,7 million), I would suppose that means annually.

Telling it as it is

He laments the lack of transparency which cannot be asserted if the National Assembly would not pass the Freedom of Information Bill that has languished in the legislative doldrums for years.

At least, we cannot say that the ex-president does not know what he is talking about when it comes to the cost of the legislative arm of government and he believes they are costing too much for the Federal Government to maintain.

Whilst he compared the cost of the legislature in 1999/2000 to today the article in the Vanguard failed to provide that comparison correctly because the current cost of NGN 250 million per head is the same as the $1.7 million quoted in the article at today’s exchange rate.

Exorbitant is unacceptable

But the most important piece of information in these exchanges is really in the statement made by the Minority Whip, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora and he said, “My sincere view is that the cost of running government is exorbitant in Nigeria.”

Taking the word exorbitant, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary [2] defines this as not coming within the scope of the law or exceeding the customary or appropriate limits in intensity, quality, amount, or size.

The WordWedOnline [3] volunteers: Greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation and Answers.com [4] suggests: Exceeding all bounds, as of custom or fairness with excessive, aberrant, flagrant and extreme as synonyms.

This corroborates views [5] I have expressed variously about the outrageously lucrative perks of Nigerian political office, irrevocably damaging the democratic landscape with people going to unmentionable extents [6] to grab office and remain indefinitely incumbent.

Change has to come

It is means on the basis of cost alone, our democracy is unsustainable but one does wonder how change can be made to bring the costs down to reasonable, fair, just and equitable.

In the end, we can only thank the ex-president and the legislators for volunteering information we have never been able to obtain by any other means, we wish they continually taunt each other with abuse, accusation, blame and chicanery, the results might just be their undoing and the hopefully the making of our democracy.

Long live Nigeria and death to the leeches that have bled her to a chronic anaemic state.

Sources

[1] Senators, Reps lambast Obasanjo « Vanguard

[2] Exorbitant - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

[3] exorbitant- WordWeb dictionary definition

[4] exorbitant: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com

[5] Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators [akin.blog-city.com]

[6] Nigeria: Our politically immature systems [akin.blog-city.com]

Nigeria: The Senate Health Bill is rejected

A retreat in retreat

The Senate Committee for Health headed by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello presented their National Health Bill to the Senate where the quality and standard of the bill was panned such that the deputy Chairman of the committee had to withdraw the bill.

You will remember, the committee was given N10 million from the illegally disbursed N300 million that the Ministry of Health should have returned to the treasury on the orders of the President.

Committee apparently went on retreat to Ghana to discuss this bill and finalise what they were to present to the Senate, the developments now show that the retreat achieved none of the objectives to make the bill suitable for presentation.

It sounds like a bad school report to have a results that indicate in the words of the Senate officials your work has irregularities.

The profile of the Health Committee

I am really saddened that this committee headed by someone who holds a PhD in some health delivery field, albeit veterinarian and was once a state health commissioner failed to grasp the remit of her brief.

However, when you see that the committee also includes that instigator of the indecent dressing bill (Senator Eme Ufot-Ekaette), the quality might have been dampened by ideas of someone given to frivolities. As a pharmacist, she seems to have no medicine for Nigeria’s health needs; she chairs the Women and Youth Committee.

The quality of the presentation does not seem to have exhibited the presumed talents of Senator Chris N. Anyanwu who as a journalist suffered incarceration for her profession. She is the vice-chairman - Committee on Defence & Army

One senator and former governor refused to put his name to the bill that was Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State who seems to be preoccupied with causing ructions in his old state.

Senator Mohammed I. Ahmed was a senator in the last legislative session, so should be conversant with senate procedures, he was once a Secretary to the Kwara State government and holds the coveted title of Member of the National Institute.

He also chairs the Establishment & Public Service Committee; in a position like that, he should have known better not to accept money from a ministry that his committee oversees, maybe he knows nothing about possible conflicts of interest.

Senator George Akume was once the governor of Benue State, a Director General and Permanent Secretary; he holds degrees in Library Science and chairs the Integration & Cooperation Committee.

Senator Adego Erhiawarie Eferakeya holds a PhD in Pharmacy (1975) and is a Doctor of Medicine (1977), he was Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Benin, and he is the vice-chairman of the Ethics & Petition Committee.

Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora is a medical practitioner and the vice-chairman of the Federal Character & Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Umaru Dahiru is a legal practitioner, he was a Senator in the last legislative term and is now the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Hassan Gusau was a member of the last legislative term and is the vice-chairman of the Employment, Labour & Productivity Committee.

Senator Mujitaba Mohammed Mallam holds a degree in educational biology and chemistry and he was once the commissioner for health of Jigawa State, he is the vice-chairman of the Housing Committee.

Senator Manzo G. Anthony is the vice-chairman of the Information & Media Committee.

Senator Gyang Dalyop Dantong was a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 and a Senator since 2003, he is the vice-chairman of the Health Committee, he presented the bill and voluntarily withdrew it after the criticism of the quality and standard of the bill - he should at least know how things are done in the Nigerian legislature, one would think.

It beggars belief

This committee has 5 people who are either highly qualified health practitioners or have held positions of state health commissioner, it has 5 chairmen of Senate committees and 7 vice-chairmen of Senate committes, 2 were governors, 3 were Senators in the last legislative term, they all must have been involved in report preparations either academically or professionally.

This was no committee of nonentities, they were probably the best qualified of all senators to produce a bill of the standard that really addresses the health problems of Nigeria.

We have record numbers of people dying from malaria, religious organisations impeding their adherents from using health delivery programmes, sub-standard drugs are found in our teaching hospitals, Ministers of Health do not seem to have the right priorities and we do not have any institution in the country to treat our President when he has an allergic reaction and we end up with a bill for a junket in Ghana and no sound bill on health.

It is a disgrace.

Address the issue objectively

The Chairman in the person of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has responsibilities to manage, if her personal troubles are getting in the way of performing her duties with dispatch she should honourably resign her chairmanship and allow the committee to deliver without being hindered by these external factors.

I am disappointed that some political movements have failed to address the issue of the problems that Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is having with her business dealings and indictments as completely separate from other matters that concern the activities of the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd.) the erstwhile President of Nigeria, who happens to be her father.

One is not surprised because from my observation Nigerians have a tendency to forget the issues and get carried away with peripheral subjective matters such that all objectivity necessary to address and scrutinise the real issue is lost.

If indeed Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is answerable to any charges, she should be dealt with as an individual in her own right and she be accorded all the means and courtesies to defend herself vigorously in any chosen forum of accusation, rebuttal, consideration and judgment.

The daughter is not the ex-President

She however should never be used as a conduit to get at her father who obviously has many enemies but is looking like a Teflon demi-god – if no one can legally and confidently indict General Obasanjo as an individual or head of a past government that is presumed to have been less than scrupulous, then he should be left alone to live out his years in pseudo-retirement.

This lack of objective focus on the issues allows the Senator to plead that she is being victimised and suggest that her life is in danger; it helps generate unnecessary sympathy for what should be a straight-forward legal issue whilst exciting commentary that could lead to exonerating her long before her cases are properly tried and proven.

It does no serve us well at all and it skews our criminal justice system.

Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators

Note: The original graphic in this blog has been lost and the link to the article which I originally sourced from the Punch newspaper is unfortunately dead. The point this blog makes is that legislators take away 1,260% of their basic salary in allowances for cars, clothes, entertainment, newspapers, holiday pay, accommodation and much else.

Allowances by huge percentages

The salary that goes with the plumiest job in the world has taken on rockets and flown right into the stratosphere. Over 4 years some people would be on this Orient Express gravy train living large in such opulence that is way beyond the dreams of their constituents.

Our lawmakers in the Nigerian National Assembly would be able to claim allowances equivalent to 1,000% of their annual basic salary possibly tax free as allowances to seek accommodation, furnish their accommodation, buy a vehicle and be dressed up to the nines.

Dress the legislator

Before we get to the figures, it is interesting that they are concerned about such minutiae as their wardrobe which for men would be flowing gowns 10 times the size of the wearer.

In a throwback to the colonial days of the District Officer they would have domestic staff that would include a steward, a cook, a housekeeper and a gardener.

They also get paid for being on recess and we can assume there are two recesses in a legislative year and we also pay for their newspapers.

Missing some essentials?

However, I think for legislators, a good deal of the important things necessary to be a legislator in the West are missing and I suppose that is because our legislators who would be walking on cloud 20 are not necessarily representatives of any constituency.

In the expenses scandals that have bothered UK Members of Parliament, one gleaned that a legislator usually requires an office, a secretary and possibly an office administrator, a number of researchers and usually a number of trips to manage constituency matters – I see no allowances that cover those aspects.

My suspicion is, beyond these allowances they would still be able to claim additional expenses to cover these matters along with a chauffeur for the executive vehicle.

Nice job, if you can get it

I know not of any job anywhere that offers this kind of largesse, ordinary people are usually supposed to pay for all these things out of their basic salaries.

It would be different if the legislators really get down to doing stuff that helps build Nigeria but with them fed and fattened to the extent that they would not be able to get out of their opulent furniture to walk through the widest doors on earth, this would be gravy-train par excellence and it grates.

Hike linked to inflation?

One cannot say why the total salary bill for our national politicians has been hiked by 31.67% from NGN 41 billion to NGN 60 billion because there has to be some economic sense to flooding the economy with an additional NGN 19 billion for work that is not even in any productive sector of the economy.

It might be that the legislators know something we do not, which is inflation in Nigeria is running at over 30% and really everyone should be irresponsibly be given a salary raise commensurate with the level of inflation.

Now we can look at the figures, over 4 years; a senator would earn NGN 2 million per annum plus the 1,260% in allowances that is NGN 8 million plus 12.6 times the annual salary (NGN 25.2 million), this would all come to NGN 33.2 million or $277,638.

Not representative at all

It might look small, but this is in a country where according to the World Bank, 90% of the population lives on less than $2/day which when summed up comes to $2,920 if the person did make $2 for every single day for four years.

It is then no surprise that electioneering is a fight to the death because there are few jobs that pay like this without extensive influence peddling.

The multiplier effect of the percentage allowance scheme is quite instructive because from another perspective it shows the multiples of ones salary required in getting these basic needs and hopefully the numbers were not just plucked out of the air.

Welcome to the plumiest job on earth, being a Nigerian legislator.