On Thursday 29th July, the Senate President dissolved the Committee on Communications chaired by Sylvester Anyanwu for telling a lie and bringing the Senate to ridicule. The committee had claimed that they had studiously screened the chair, executive chair and commissioners of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and it turned out that they did no such thing. Rather than carry out their legislative functions, they were fabricating stories about their work.
One key question is the explanation for why they claimed they had screened them if they had not. We know that they had also approved over N6 billion for the registration of SIM cards for GSM phones. We know however that the registration is being done by the phone companies not by NCC. It is clear that the anti-corruption agencies have some work to do investigating possible connections between the committee and the budget lines approved for theft.
There are indeed clear indications that increasingly, National Assembly Committees are approving budget lines that were not conceived by the originating ministries. They make the allocations with the intention of recovering the monies later by using their “oversight might” to blackmail ministries and agencies to pass on the budget lines to them. If the rumours circulating about such activities are true, then the level of irresponsibility of our legislature has reached the point of no return.
We recall how on Tuesday 22nd June, the House of Representatives engaged in a disgraceful show of disrespect to Nigerian citizens by organizing a fist fight choreographed with kung fu moves, blood, screams, whistles and tear gas. They were showing their determination to prove to all who cared to listen that they were the most irresponsible legislature in the world.
As I have argued previously, one of the most serious threats to sustaining democracy in Nigeria emanates directly from the irresponsibility of the National Assembly. And yet, legislatures are the only institutions that directly represent constituencies, and thereby the people. They have the power to create other powers which means they have the monopoly of the powers to make laws through which they create new commissions and agencies, enact public policy and determine public expenditure through the process of appropriation laws.
It is this legitimacy derived from the electoral process that gives them the power to translate the views and concerns of citizens they are representing into public policy. Not surprisingly, when many a legislator owes his or her seat to godfathers rather than the votes of constituents, the focus of work is diverted.
On 30th June this year, the Kenyan Parliament approved a 25% increase of their allowances. They earn $13,455, (about 2 million Naira), a month today and the increase led to major condemnation around the world over the excesses of the income of Kenyan legislatures. The important thing in Kenya however was that the increase was debated openly and citizens know what their parliamentarians earn.
In Nigeria, the National Assembly members have refused to let us know officially what they earn. We have however learnt from leaks that they illegally pay each member about N15 million every month and are about to double the amount. They will not pass the freedom of information bill because they want to hide from Nigerians the scandalous financial packages they give themselves.
In addition, Section 24 of the Legislative Houses Powers and Privileges Act of 2004 prohibits Nigerian citizens from publishing any statement that falsely or scandalously impinges on the character of the leaders or members of the National Assembly. This means that when they tell lies about their work, steal our money, fight each other in public and engage in disgraceful acts, we the ordinary citizens who they are supposed to be representing must shut up because they are convinced that they are our overlords.
Consolidating Nigerian democracy today requires an open confrontation between the people and the legislature. We must insist on an open debate on the take home pay of every legislative member. It is curious that no member of the legislatures has to my knowledge confessed the totally scandalous monthly take home package they pocket.
We all know that the contract between the legislatures and the people is a dubious one because most of them were not genuinely elected by the people. Be that as it may, we know today that they are an avaricious, self-serving bunch of goal getters whose sights are on their pockets and not the interest of the people. To save our democracy, we must confront, challenge, delegitimise and recount on a daily basis how their lives and actions betray the interest of the people and prove that they represent the god of money rather than the good people of Nigeria.