Wanted parliamentary watch dog (1)

BY FEMI OKUNNU

OUR national newspapers have been awash in recent times with reports about the salaries and expenses claims of our Senators and Representatives in the National Assembly.

We have been told that a Senator in the last Assembly earned N15.18 million  per month, while a Representative earned N10.59 million monthly in salaries and allowances. A United States Senator earns only N2.175m monthly, and a British Member of Parliament’s monthly salary is N0.8 million. In Australia, a legislator’s monthly pay is equivalent to N175,000. In spite of the outcry against their jumbo pay, our 2007/2011 legislators treated the Nigerian public with utter disdain and disrespect. They increased their annual budget from N111 billion in 2010 to N232 billion in 2011 in order to loot more of our national treasury.

The Central Bank exposed them in publicly stating that their earnings amounted to 25 per cent of the national recurrent budget: 469 Senators earning 25 per cent, while about half a million civil servants in the Federal Civil Service make do with the remaining 75 per cent of the budget to pay for their salaries and the running expenses of the Federal Government.

Despite the furore, not a word in rebuttal of the allegations or by way of explanation or clarification from the National Assembly.

As if that was not enough, our Federal legislators rubbed our noses further in the mud by passing a bill in the National Assembly in order to conceal, to hide the details of their loot. It was reported that they attempted to amend section 81(3) of the Constitution to allow for a one line vote for the legislature. In order words, the total amount voted for the Assembly would be paid directly to the National Assembly for disbursement. No details of the disbursements would be revealed to the public.

There is no provision in the Constitution that the accounts of the National Assembly can be audited by the Auditor-General of the Federation. Rather, the AuditorGeneral shall lay before the National Assembly the audited accounts of the Federation for debate by the legislators. No one monitors their salaries and expenses. It is all for grabs.

And now the N10billion bank loan by the House of Representatives which, once the news leaked out, the House debated the loan at an executive session (out of bounds to the press and the public), and thereafter kept sealed lips  a cover up.

No one, no organ of the government – the Executive, the Legislature or the Judiciary  can spend a kobo outside the annual or supplementary budget once the bill is passed by the National Assembly and assented to by the President. And only the Federal Government, headed by the President, has the constitutional power to borrow money on behalf of the Federal Government. Neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives or the Judiciary has any constitutional right or power to borrow money from the public or private sector. Borrowing of money is an executive act.  We leave the rest of the matter with the EFCC.

And latterly, it was reported that cars, television sets, computers and other items purchased for the use of the Assembly were sold to Senators and Representatives at considerable discounts. What an abuse of privilege and power!

The Public and the Press must say Enough of this disdain for the public by the Legislature. Enough of this utter contempt for public opinion. And Enough of this looting of the public treasury. Enough! Enough!!

The expenses scandal in 2008/2009 by British Members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords was exposed by the British Press: Members of Parliament and Lords were found fiddling with expenses. The newspapers had a field day, every day for months or over a year. In the result, one half of the House of Commons retired from Parliament at the last (2010) British election. A few of the Members of Parliament and two members of the House of Lords are now serving terms in prison.

What can we do in Nigeria to stop this legislative looting of our treasury?

First of all, all vehicles and other items purchased for the use of the National Assembly must be retrieved from the members who purportedly purchased them. The transaction is immoral.

In 1960, the Federal Government established a Conference Visitors Unit (CVU) to run a pool of all vehicles not specifically assigned to the ministries for the use of the Federal Government for international conferences or events.

•Alhaji Femi Okunnu (SAN), CON, elder statesman and former federal commissioner for Works, wrote from Lagos.