By Igbotako Nowinta
It is most excruciating to note that legislators in Nigeria are the most pampered in terms of financial remunerations and benefits in modern history. Therefore, in setting agenda for the incoming new set of leaders in the National Assembly, the annoying jumbo salary package for federal lawmakers should be revisited as soon as the National Assembly reconvene in the first week of June this year. It is a grand conspiracy and blatant crime against the Nigerian people that their present salary package still stands untouched or reduced drastically since May 1999. This is adding my voice to that of the out-going ‘common sense’ Senator, Ben Murray Bruce from Bayelsa State, who recently canvassed for the holistic review of salaries being paid to senators and members of House of Representatives in the country.
The political tarmac in Nigeria is being burnt from the length and breadth of the country in the name of serious lobbying and horse trading to get the new set of leaders that will steer the affairs of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
This development is not unexpected given the fact that in a participatory democracy such as ours, that recognizes separation of powers between the executive, judicial and the legislative arms, the vital role of the National Assembly can never be underrated.
The statutory provision regarding the selection or election of principal officers of the national assembly cannot be swept under the carpet, but given what is obtainable in our clime considering the storm and tempest that had come to play since the return to democracy in 1999, the role being played by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other salient forces are not unexpected.
Looking quickly at what befell the ruling party in Nigeria shortly after the unprecedented landslide victory of the All Progressives Congress over the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, where a group of parochial, self-centered card carrying members of the party led by Senator Bukola Saraki decided to abandon the cause of the party that sponsored them to power.
The resultant effect was the unfortunate drama that played out between Senator Saraki’s presidency of the Senate and the Executive arm of government for close to four years before the terrible ding dong political affair reached a crescendo, with the decamping of Senator Saraki and his gang from the APC.
The true story of the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari that will be eclipsing on May 29 2019, is how Senator Bukola Saraki and his tiny political spoilers stood up and acted like mighty spanners in the wheel of progress because of desperate political ambition that did not have any space for collective sacrifice in the overall interest of the country.
Unlike what was available during the tenure of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, where a Senate led by David Mark did everything humanly possible to smoothen the relationship between the Senate and the Executive arm of government, everything was done by Senator Saraki to destabilize and frustrate the campaign promises of President Buhari-led APC government.
Now that the President has been given a new lease of life via the 2019 Presidential Election to govern for another four years, the onus rest on well-meaning Nigerians to give him another opportunity to weather the storm of office by using a nationalistic and patriotic Senate and House of Representatives leadership, that will be partners in progress in the genuine interest of the Nigerian people.
Well some cynics and celebrated haters of the APC-led Federal Government will want to say that it is not yet Uhuru for President Muhammad Buhari because of the ongoing legal tussle being waged spiritedly by the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
From my own perspective, l think a man beating his chest loudly with a controversial presidential election results allegedly obtained via the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), indicating and showing only the result of the PDP is dreaming in a land of the spirits.
How could Atiku Abubakar be parading only the results allegedly won by the PDP without any showing for other political parties that featured in the 2019 Presidential Election? It beats my imagination to see how Atiku Abubakar will be able to overturn the victory of President Muhamnadu Buhari using his ‘controversial INEC server result,’ and given the fact that the only bonafide and statutorily empowered body to declare election result in Nigeria is INEC!
As l wish Alhaji Atiku Abubakar success in his current pursuit, the emerging National Assembly being built as a result of the last National Assembly elections has a lot to offer the people of Nigeria, most especially the principal officers being arranged or structured behind the scene.
As the ruling APC is trying frantically to ensure that some prominent individuals within its fold and in the National Assembly are strategically positioned to snatch and dominate the leadership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, instead of members of the opposition within the PDP, the overwhelming expectations from well-meaning Nigerians is absolutely high.
In spite of the concerted efforts that the Presidency has put up to better the lots of the people of Nigeria in the last four years, a chunk of the well-meaning Nigerians still believe that a focused, friendly, people oriented, pro-active, humane, sensible and nationalistic National Assembly will change things radically for the Nigerian masses.
To put it in clearer perspective, the Nigerian public expect more than ever before the next National Assembly to put the welfare of the citizenry above any other considerations.
As the new principal officers of the National Assembly are being formed behind the scenes, patriotic Nigerians are eager to see a new set of characters that will introduce another dimension, projections, direction and orientation to the affairs of the nation’s highest legislative body.
In a country with enormous economic potentials to drive its economy and restore hope to its teeming citizens, Nigerians need more than ever before, a National Assembly that will be objectively appreciable, progressively focused and masses-driven.
Nigerians have had enough of scandals that often brew and burst in our supposed hallowed legislative chambers, of sensational Code of Conduct cases, outlandish promises that are never kept, parochialism and pursuit of selfish oversight functions, arrogant nauseating display of opulence; unaltruistic or unpatriotic agendas; lackadaisical attitude to the interest and welfare of the masses.
Nigerians yearn for a National Assembly that will never allow our public Treasury to be looted barefacedly. We want a legislative body that will ensure that social services are delivered, that will engage the Executive arm in a robust, far-reaching and epochal law making.
It is most excruciating to note that legislators in Nigeria are the most pampered in terms of financial remunerations and benefits in modern history.
Therefore, in setting agenda for the incoming new set of leaders in the National Assembly, the annoying jumbo salary package for federal lawmakers should be revisited as soon as the National Assembly reconvene in the first week of June this year.
It is a grand conspiracy and blatant crime against the Nigerian people that their present salary package still stands untouched or reduced drastically since May 1999.
This is adding my voice to that of the out-going ‘common sense’ Senator, Ben Murray Bruce from Bayelsa State, who recently canvassed for the holistic review of salaries being paid to senators and members of House of Representatives in the country.
He contended that teachers across the country should have been the ones given preferential salary treatment because of the enormous work they do, impacting knowledge in the class rooms.
Some Nigerians have criticized Senator Ben Murray Bruce for his recent position, saying that the PDP law maker would have carried this campaign to logical platforms long ago, arguing that he ought to have done this long ago, not now when he had lost his bid to come back to the Senate via the last 2019 National Assembly Elections.
For me it is better to be late in calling a spade a spade than never doing so at all. Drastic reduction of take home pay for federal law makers and other categories of outrageous emoluments being given to politicians in the country are long overdue.
If the campaign of salary reduction begins from the National Assembly, it will go a long way in sanitizing the satanic preferential salary treatment currently being enjoyed by the political class in Nigeria.
After all, a country in Africa recently did away with her Senate to economize the unbearable cost of running the institution!
Nigeria and Nigerians must pull our country from the horrible platform of ridicule and shame that has been our lot.
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – a call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
