Cost of governance and part-time legislature

Click banner for more info

Public suspicion that the non-sovereign nature of the National Conference convened by President Goodluck Jonathan could end up as a mere talk shop, whose recommendations could be stifled or frustrated by the National Assembly (NASS) if not put to a referendum and made part of the nation’s Constitution, appears to be at the verge of becoming a reality. The wrath pouring from the recesses of some members of the NASS following the adoption by the National Conference on Wednesday June 4, of a recommendation put forward by its committee on public service that lawmakers at national and state levels should work on part-time basis, suggests that much.


Perhaps most glaring, some also see it as uncharitable, were the remarks credited to former governor of Benue State, George Akume, who is currently the Minority Leader of the nation’s 7th Senate. Akume was reported as saying the following in response to the national confab’s recommendation: “… If they (delegates to the conference) want to change our legislative system to parttime sittings, they should go and contest elections into (the) NASS and state Houses of Assembly to effect the change, which, unfortunately, is impossible for them for lack of electoral value”. The ex-governorturned parliamentarian had stated earlier in the same report: “We are not surprised that such a proposal came from the National Conference which has 90 per cent people handpicked by the President; and who are by their actions proving to have been put together to rubbish and embarrass the NASS… Such a proposal cannot see the light of day’’.

One’s simplest interpretation of Akume’s, or is it the Senate’s reaction to the recommendation, is that the NASS feels President Jonathan just convened the confab to slash the out-of-this-world salaries and perks of office members of the legislature enjoy, especially at the national level. Each of the country’s 109 senators is said to be earning N272 million; and each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives N232 million annually, for example.

These are quite huge sums of money that will go a long way in explaining Akume’s bitter position that the confab’s recommendation cannot see the light of day.

Widely agreed, however, is the fact that the cost of running government in Nigeria is outrageous; and had for long been crying for drastic pruning to ease out funds to be invested in meaningful development imperatives. However, bloated salaries, allowances and other perquisites of office are not enjoyed by the legislature alone. They are probably more mountainous in the executive arm of government than in the legislature. In the executive, for instance, have been reports of lavish underhand dealings, daylight frauds and monumental corruption thriving unpunished. This is where the National Conference deserves some serious knocks; because it would have avoided Akume’s caustic comments if it had, in addition to recommending a part-time legislature (which may translate to reducing the cost of running the legislative arm of government), also made far-reaching recommendations on how best to trim the executive arm and the cost of running it, as well as how to go about taming the festering corruption, et al, plaguing the executive and the nation’s bureaucracy as a whole. Only the judiciary is said to be under-funded, going by recent reports.

Of a truth, however, the crux of the matter is not either running a full or part-time legislature, but generally scaling down the cost of governance in a country where the governing elite demands all manner of sacrifices from ordinary citizens, but literally feast on the same citizens’ blood to retain themselves in power, whereas they (ruling class) are so heartless and scarcely ready to concede any meaningful sacrifice that will benefit ordinary and less-privileged citizens.

The monstrous expenditure, recurrent cost especially, that goes into governance in Nigeria is one of the major reasons it has been difficult to sift politicians having genuine intentions to serve the nation and the people from the chaffs – rent-seekers without conscience, who see politics as the surest path to corrupt self-enrichment. It is the reason most past governors rush to the Senate on leaving office; and why countless senators and members of the House of Representatives, alongside their privileged counterparts in the executive arm of government, scramble for governorship slots in their states at the twilight of their terms in office. The huge pay that goes with holding public office is also one of the roots of blood-letting and do-or-die politics in the country.

Therefore, all arrangements that will make the legislature perform its legitimate duties efficiently and effectively; and at reasonable cost to the nation, are welcome. But the National Conference should have aimed at recommending an across-the-board benchmark for cutting the cost of governance in both the executive and legislative arms of government, especially. Not just singling out the legislature for the slaughter slab. Both the executive and legislature have ruined the nation enough. They are equally the root of the rot in the nation’s judiciary.