NATIONAL ASSEMBLY'S N17B BONANZA

PRESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua signed the 2008 Appropriation Bill into law after an initial reluctance. He had objected to changes effected in the bill by the National Assembly. He believed the manner in which the legislators tinkered with the bill was inimical to the realisation of his economic objectives. The said changes were far-reaching and widely perceived to be self-serving. The National Assembly, for instance, upped its recurrent expenditure by 78 per cent.

IN reaction to the President’s unwillingness to append his signature to the bill, the lawmakers threatened to display their legislative might by overriding the presidential veto. They insisted that Yar’Adua should first sign the bill into law and, thereafter, forward his objections to them for consideration and necessary action. A parley between the two sides yielded an amicable resolution after which the President signed the bill. Among the terms of settlement was that the President would later send a supplementary appropriation bill that would seek to correct the perceived anomalies in the original bill.

WITH the hefty sum of N17 billion shelled out to the National Assembly, it is obvious that the implementation of the 2008 Budget has started in earnest. The speed at which the people’s representatives have collected and shared N17 billion has demonstrated clearly why they were so desperate to see that the bill become law. Every member of the House of Representatives is reported to have received about N12 million while each Senator collected N15 million for each month. The payments are to take care of the legislators’ overheads, official trips, constituency staff, the running of their offices and the maintenance of official cars. The amounts paid to the lawmakers varied with their levels of responsibility and duties performed. Principal officers and committee chairmen got more money than others while performance of oversight functions was an additional qualification for fatter paycheques.

WHILE the legislators are smiling to their banks, a vast majority of the people they represent are groaning because they lack the basic requirements of life. The minimum wage in most states of the federation is barely N7,500. The university graduate on national service is being paid N9,700 a month. The plight of employees in the informal sector is pathetic because they earn below starvation wages. The army of the unemployed has been growing by leaps and bounds. The rate at which Nigerian youths and professionals have been seeking fortune in other lands is alarming. Many young people have taken to crime to wreak vengeance on a society in which all their aspirations have been frustrated. It is in the same society that a microscopic minority elected to serve the people’s interests has been allocating to themselves the percentage of the people’s resources that catches their fancy.

THE National Assembly members enjoy making a show of their oversight functions. They savour the prominence they get in the media in the course of their public hearings on the activities of government establishments. Who, on the other hand, has been overseeing the legislature? Particularly in the matter of appropriation, the legislature is not accountable to any arm of government. The National Assembly gets whatever it puts in the budget and its committees still routinely collect money from the ministries, departments and agencies that they oversee. The media that have the constitutional responsibility of holding government accountable is handicapped because the activities of the different arms of government are largely shrouded in secrecy. The misdeeds of the executive are being jealously guarded by a secretive bureaucracy while the legislature goes into executive sessions to consider matters of selfish interest. The Freedom of Information bill has been thrown out. Of course, this was expected.

IN spite of the policy of monetisation and the heavy cost of its implementation, huge sums of money are still being spent on the purchase of the so-called utility vehicles. Why should the maintenance of every legislator’s car be at the government’s expense after transportation needs have been monetised? The salaries and allowances of the 469 members of the National Assembly which were previously N41 billion now stand at N60 billion a year. It is this same number of privileged Nigerians that collected N17 billion for whatever services they believe they are rendering in a country in which 70 per cent of the people live on less than N120 a day.

THE National Assembly has, for some time, been riding on the crest of a wave of public approval. It has been exposing how those on the executive side of the political divide have been using public office for private gain. The investigation into the power projects, in a way, has put in stark relief the reasons behind the perpetual darkness that has enveloped the country. The public hearing on the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has brought to light hidden facts about land allocations and revocations in Abuja.

THE promised probe into the affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is certain to bring forth mind-blowing revelations. It may provide the opportunity for the ordinary Nigerian to know why there has been so much misery in the midst of abundance.

THE distinguished lawmakers have been drawing public attention to their populist stance on the misdeeds of the executive arm of government under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. They should reasonably expect a flurry of accolades for so doing. The irony, however, is that they are standing at the doorstep of equity when their hands are glaringly unclean. They were involved in the N300 million scam in the Federal Ministry of Health. The probe into the affairs of the FCTA has become a two-edged sword in the hands of panel members. The lawmakers regularly collect money for constituency projects which are conceived, costed, executed and supervised by them. The only losers are their constituents. Just a few days after the appropriation bill was signed into law, the legislators collected and shared N17 billion. Most of the people they represent lack the basic necessities of life. The budget used to be in millions. It later grew into billions. Now it is in trillions and all the people can see are the rosy cheeks and the flashy lifestyles of their leaders.

THE lawmakers may have to put the interest of the people above personal gain. They were elected to serve and make the difference in the lives of their people. But are the lawmakers delivering on these sacred promises of prosperity and good life and living for their people? They need to constantly remind themselves that the watchful and undying posterity is there and will judge their actions and inaction.

what is your ransom value?

VERY soon, Nigerians may have to be assessing themselves to determine their ransom value for their own safety. It is becoming apparent that people with high ransom value, the rich and the affluent, are no longer safe, due to the booming kidnapping business.

THE kidnapping sector of the Nigerian economy has, no doubt, overtaken other sectors like banking, oil and gas and telecommunications. It is has become a money-spinning business that will fetch professionals in the sector millions within a very short time, as recent events in the southern part of the country have shown.

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE transport giant, Mr. Frank Nneji, was reported to have paid a handsome ransom to the kidnappers of his wife, Ngozi. Mrs. Nneji, according to reports, spent 10 days in the kidnappers’ hideout while negotiations were going on. But she was released as soon as the “contract papers” were signed, sealed and delivered by her husband. It is not known how much Mr. Nneji paid, but the guess is that the “shareholders” of the particular kidnapping company that held his wife to ransom collected a hefty sum.

MANY prominent Nigerians have had the misfortune of involuntarily investing in the kidnappers’ shareholders’ funds. They were forced to participate in haggling contests while trying to beat down the outrageous amounts the kidnappers were demanding for their quarries. So while the kidnappers declare huge profits, innocent people are made to declare huge losses.

INTERESTINGLY, some leaders, who had applauded the growing business of kidnapping by saying it was not different from armed robberies in the Northern and Western parts of the country, are now changing gears. They have discovered that their ransom worth is very high. In fact, many of them have had to pay handsomely to regain their freedom. The truth is that the kidnappers do not just randomly select their victims or customers. They first weigh the ransom valuation of their targets before seeking them out.

THE man in the street has no ransom value and that is the reason he has been spared the agony of being kidnapped. So, for the poor people of the Niger Delta and East, it is a mixed fortune for their misfortune. Being poor has its own advantage after all; it makes one to have no ransom worth. And a person with little or no ransom valuation is not good for the kidnapping business. So, does it now pay to be poor… in the Niger Delta?