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Uyi Edogamhe
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This grand theft and blatant abuse of authority is unacceptable and must be addressed forthwith.  Any further delay on this vexatious issue would be an unacceptable act of avoidable provocation. This is an uncomfortable truth that has been revealed and the Nigerian masses will no longer accept this naked stealing in the name of constituency allowance and other fancy semantically concocted phrases employed to pilfer and outrightly steal.

 

OBASANJO’S UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH.
 by Uyi Edogamhe
 

Olusegun Obasanjo is an enigma. A prolific public discuss provocateur. It is either you like him or you hate his gut. Obasanjo to a very large extend is unpredictable. He is brash, rash, impulsive and on your face with an inopportune but frank remarks mostly. His latest salvo is predictably Obasanjo and there is no traction or an ounce of self recrimination, on whose ox is gored. Obasanjo  in life and most probably long after he leaves the political scene will continue to be a phenomenon to be discussed and dissected.

Ex-President Obasanjo defiles any visceral categorization. He is a lot of things to a lot of people. He is a cheat, a con, a fraud, a saviour, a hero, the best President Nigeria ever had till this point, an opportunist, a very corrupt individual and whatever.. The mention of the name Obasanjo in some circles, is enough to ignite passionate and altercating discussions. The desperation to make Obasanjo look real bad and hopelessly corrupt cost Nigeria three years plus of inaction in the power sector reforms. The Nigerian nation had to be held hostage to a political game of “gotcha” just to prove a point.

The seeming actors in this grand design, it turned out, where themselves earnestly engrossed and entangled in the web of corruption they tried to untangle. The monster of corruption it does seem is untameable,  and the lame duck EFCC, is more of a problem than a deterring  remedy at this juncture.

President Obasanjo’s call in the recent past few days, to look closely at our legislature, so that they could be more transparent in the way they do their work, has throw wide, the question of monumental corruption in our body politic. Obasanjo have not said anything knew. It is a general knowledge that the National Assembly is a beehive of corrupt activities, It is a widely accepted view that, the political class is a fiefdom of marauding self conceited, uninspiring, dubious and avidly corrupt lot. Both the opposition and the ruling party are thriving and complimenting partners in this corrupt cesspool of indignation.  Obasanjo’s  comment helped touch a nerve, that has brought this issue back to the realm of public discuss. He has a puritanical inclination of putting life into any issue of public interest.

The outlandish and disgraceful stipend of  the Nigerian national assembly members is an issue that have been skilfully avoided by the national assembly and it’s leadership. The one thing the national assembly have been most adept at, since it’s inception, have been churning out breath taking and mind burgling self serving democracy lexicons.  Invented words like, Constituency allowance. Hardship Allowance,  Newspaper allowance, Recess allowance, Vehicle maintenance allowance,  and other sundry allowances excused to appropriate money.

Constitutional stealing have been aptly substituted for authority stealing. It is now stealing with a bogus force of law.

Nigerian national assembly members have till now cleverly avoided addressing the  issues as raised by the ex-president. In his characteristic manner, Obasanjo had said,  ”look closely at the legislature so that they can be more open and transparent in the way they do their work. Nobody knows in details how much it costs us to maintain a senator. I believe it is more than N250 million (per annum). Compare what it cost in 1999 and 2000, it cost about $1.7 million compared to a quarter of a million in America... Now let us talk truly and seriously to ourselves; we can‘t continue to have a National Assembly that is consuming a disproportional part of our resources and then expect that we would be able to make progress. They pass budget that can‘t be implemented because it has to be beefed up to satisfy their (legislators‘) whims and caprices. Even what the ministries did not ask for, they add (in the budget).”

Anything close to an intelligible response to this observation have been, a self indicting acceptance by the leader of the minority in the house of Representative, Alli Ndume of ANPP that, they are all corrupt.  There have been a unison despicable, name calling and inexplicable vituperations  on the formally president, while the real issue to be addressed is avoided.

Members and staffs of the national assembly are all federal public servants whose remunerations and emoluments, Should be in line with the laid down federal rules  as it affects civil servants.  National assembly members, apart from their salaries, which could be set outside the frail, are by law public servants, elected to serve there various constituencies at the national level and as such are covered by the federal civil servant statute.  Their allowances and emolument should be in line with what obtains in the federal civil service.

The present situation were national assemblies members are paid the following:  Basic salary – N2,484,245.50; Hardship allowance @ 50% of Basic salary – N1,242,122.70; Constituency allowance @ 200% of BS – N4,968,509.00;

Furniture allowance @ 300% of BS – N7,452,736.50; Newspaper allowance @ 50% of BS – N1,242,122.70; Wardrobe allowance @ 25% – N621,061.37;

Recess allowance @ 10% – N248,424.55; Accommodation @ 200% – N4,968,509.00; Utilities @ 30% of BS – N828,081.83; Domestic Staff @ 75% of BS – N1,863,184.12; Entertainment @ 30% of BS – N828, 081.83; Personal assistants @ 25% of BS – N621,061.37; Vehicle maintenance allowance @ 75% of BS – N1,863, 184.12; Leave allowance @ 10% of BS – N48,424.55; severance gratuity @ 300% of BS – N7,452,736.50;

Motor vehicle allowance @ 400% of BS – N9,936,982.00 (every 4 years); Total = N29,479,749.00; Senator’s Salary per month = 2,456,647.70; Grand Total (109 Senators) = N3,264,329,264.10 (Newswatch, July 12, 2010, p.14). Yet, this is in a country regarded largely to be poor and where an average Nigerian lives below a dollar per day.

This grand theft and blatant abuse of authority is unacceptable and must be addressed forthwith.  Any further delay on this vexatious issue would be an unacceptable act of avoidable provocation. This is an uncomfortable truth that has been revealed and the Nigerian masses will no longer accept this naked stealing in the name of constituency allowance and other fancy semantically concocted phrases employed to pilfer and outrightly steal.
 

 

 

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