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Uyi Edogamhe
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SLEAZE, GREED AND DECEIT.
 by Uyi Edogamhe

"Sadly, we have been saddled with the antics of  a corruptly determined selected representatives with no sense of duty. They are beholden only to their bloated ego and their insatiable greed."

Most Nigerians, l bet, were flummoxed at some of the reports we were “privileged” to read about the shoddy expropriation and infinite appropriation going on in both houses of the Nigerian National Assembly; that is the Senate and the House of Representatives.
 

It still defiles any reasonable thinking how these Senators and Representatives that were supposed to render selfless services to the Nigerian people, have automatically evolved to be so heartlessly and shamelessly self serving and self centred. The opposition parties that are supposed to put a check on the excesses of the ruling party are unfortunately a willing and conniving tool in this sleaze, greed and wilful deceit.

Nigerians are still waiting for a rebuttal or outright denial of the embarrassing revelations about the jumbo salaries and deceitful allowances of all shades and manners our “supposedly” elected representatives have continually appropriated for themselves in the new democratic dispensation, while the living condition of the average Nigerian have continued to desperately decline. There is a total disconnect between the electorate and their representatives. While the formal continues to wallow in unmitigated poverty, the later is absurdly immersed in unabashed embarrassing affluence fuelled by an insatiable greed that knows no bound or decorum.

The belief that there were some people of unquestionable integrity who could have been counted on in the National Assembly to do the right thing have woefully been dispelled and proven embarrassingly wrong by these revelations. The revelations are mortifying and incredible.  That it cost about N250 (Two Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) putting it conservatively, to maintain each member of the National Assembly in a country where there is total collapse of basic infrastructures, a country where more than half its population live below the universally accepted poverty line, is rudely shocking and sacrilegious. This episode has sadly exposed the 'con' and deceit of our sham democratic representation.

The new democratic order has flourished in the past eleven years, with very little opportunity for introspection and ‘self-correction’ of some glaring and some rather unforeseen defects in this democratic experimentation, till very recently. The ill fated  President Yar’Adua’s  medical absence had created a very serious scare in the political system, that was ingenuously addressed within an evolving political dynamic. This very problem of the over bloated “criminal” stipends and deceitful allowances concocted for personal glorification need to be pontificated on, and corrected. Since the National assembly members clearly are not willing and definitely lack the political will to take the initiative on this, the civil society should legally fight this legalised and unconstitutional fraud, and the Nigerian electorate should be educated to ultimately make the call, with their votes. An end has to be put to this jamboree of disguised theft and wholesome stealing, shrouded in some ludicrous lexicon.

It is a virtual exercise in absurdity to try and make sense of all the lexicons in the Nigerian political remunerative parlance and comprehend the rationale behind these lexical creativity.  Word like, “Hardship Allowance” which is an estimated fifty percentage of the house members and Senators basic salaries, in a country where the federal government is finding it hard to increase the minimum wage of N7500. Hardship allowance for a bunch of procrastinating, do nothing Senators and House members, after a basic take home pay of an average of N2,484,491.50 (Two million Four hundred and Eighty four thousand, Two hundred and Forty five Naira Fifty kobo). “Newspaper Allowance, Wardrobe Allowance,  Recess Allowance, Furniture allowance”.

Furthermore, the Senate President is speculated to take home N250 million ( Two hundred and Fifty Million Naira) quarterly allowance, the Deputy Senate President takes home N150 Million (A Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) and N1,024,000,000 (A Billion and Twenty Four Million Naira), are  reportedly set aside for the 2010 fiscal year as quarterly allowances for the 10 principal officers of the Senate, in a situation where more than hundreds of Nigerian infants die daily from preventable malaria infections.

This is a very despicable and outright fraudulent exercise that gives legal cover to criminal official malfeasance, with all these unconscionable con allowances and stipends. If the outlandish ‘words’ fabrications are the handiwork of the present or pioneer members of the National Assembly in this new dispensation,  then it is clear that the motivation is personal self aggrandisement.

That  these anomaly is still been feasted on till date, is a testament to the fact that this is a meticulously well contrived  plan to continually short change and defraud the Nigerian people by way of senseless, laughable semantic inventions. If on the other hand, the Military handed over this craziness, then it could be deduced that they were so  engrossed and blinded with corruption that this patronizing attempt at institutional quid pro quo was meant to placate the civilian authorities and guarantee the vacating Military goons and their surrogates, their loots and a possible bogus comeback excuse.

The deafening silence on this vexing issue  by leadership of both the Senate and the House, can well be construed to be a tactical  acceptance  and acknowledgement of this widely speculated stipends and allowances. That members of these august body can in good conscience appropriate and partake in this cash jamboree speaks volumes. The business of the Nigerian people have been subordinated to the pursuit of personal wealth and advancement.  All these articulated sums short changed the Nigerian people, and enhanced personal fulfilment, while the lives of Nigerians have not been impacted.

A N250 Million, N150 Million, N78 Million and a N24 million  quarterly allowances to  the respective categories of officials in both Houses of the national Assembly and to every member, in the past eleven years, are more than enough to upgrade and improve all the primary and secondary school infrastructures in all of the districts and constituencies as represented by  the National assembly members and still build a primary health care centre in each of these districts. Sadly, we have been saddled with the antics of  a corruptly determined selected representatives with no sense of duty. They are beholden only to their bloated ego and their insatiable greed.  
 

 

 

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