Emmanuel Onwubiko: Executive hypocrisy and parliamentary inanities
The law makers of Great Britain are paid by the people of Britain and are therefore expected to justify the payments. Parliamentarians render proper accounts to their constituents and run open offices in their constituencies.
The basic annual salary for an MP from 1 April 2019 is £79,468. MPs also receive expenses to cover the costs of running an office, employing staff, having somewhere to live in London or their constituency, and travelling between Parliament and their constituency.Further, we learnt that since the May 2010 General Election the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has been responsible for the regulation and payment of expenses to Members of the House of Commons.
In the Commons, some MPs are paid more because of the special jobs they hold. For example, the Speaker and the Chairs of Committees receive an extra salary.The MPs’ Pension Scheme is part of the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund . Further information about the scheme can be found on the PCPF website, so says the officials running the website.
Nigeria is also practicing partly British parliamentary system and the United States of America’s presidential system of government. Why are there wide disparities between what is allowed by this statutory body as payments for the legislators and the actual benefits they draw from the public fund? Perhaps, it was in a bid to attempt to divert our attention from the huge financial wastages in running the National Assembly that prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to publicly defend the criticisms that the Federal law makers are overpaid. The President however shot himself on the leg because available statistical data shows that Nigeria pays more to run the National Assembly than even advanced economies like Britain and the USA.
Buhari said this in Abuja last Wednesday when the House of Representatives launched The Green Chamber Magazine, a publication by the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs. “In addition, it will help the House to tell its own story, rather than relying on others to take charge of their narrative. It is said that no one can tell your story better than you.”
“I did not only read about Nnamdi Azikiwe, I also read about Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in his younger days – eloquent and passionate about Nigeria. You may not have agreed with all that he said and did, but you cannot deny the fact, the clarity of vision and the need for marshaling the people as the only antidote to the problems that have afflicted Nigeria, and by extension Africa.
Look at this executive and legislative hypocrisy as follows: President Muhammadu Buhari last year, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to block food importers’ requests for foreign currency in a bid to boost local agriculture in Africa’s most populous country. Then the annoying hypocrisy of the President shows up when it emerged that the Nigeria’s house of Representatives has concluded plan to purchase 400 exotic cars at the price of N12.6.646.800.00 each, which is $35,130 equivalent.The cars which are 2020 Toyota Camry will serve as their official vehicle.
In the 2020 budget signed recently by President Muhammadu Buhari, the renovation of the National Assembly complex is set to gulp ₦37 billion.
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