The cost of (mal)governance
The ongoing discourse on the cost of governance is not rooted in reality. This is because the cost, as high as it is, does not even go into the servicing of governance. This is evident from the fact that, as we survey the bleak Nigerian landscape, it does not take much to appreciate that malgovernace is the dominant phenomenon which comes through. Indices of this inclement situation include poor power supply, lack of potable water, bad roads – in short, a Hobbesian existence which virtually places Nigeria in the league of war-ravaged nations.
This is visible in virtually every area and at all levels of government, but perhaps the most visible is what obtains in the legislature. Recently, and for the umpteenth time, we had a haunting reminder of the rapacious tactics which hallmark legislators’ salaries and allowances – the infamous wardrobe allowance which runs into millions of naira for our federal legislators. This is apart from other various forms of fripperies.
Meanwhile, it is not as if the country is even getting value for money. Indeed, what we have on our hands is an under-performing and laid-back National Assembly. On this score, we only have to turn to recent reports on the performance of the 7th National Assembly. An official report tagged “Status of Bills, Petitions and other Legislations” shows that a staggering 191 out of the 360 members of the House of Reps spent four years without sponsoring any bill of their own between 2011 and 2015. Out of a total number of 755 bills introduced to the House, 679 were initiated by private members, six were sent from the Senate, while 70 were executive bills. The Senate, similarly, cannot be exonerated as regards this passive posture.
In vivid terms, it is revealed that, as regards accommodation, each senator gets N4 million, while each House of Reps member gets N3.97 million. As vehicle loan, each senator takes N8 million, while House of Reps members collect N7.94 million each. The furniture allowance for each senator is N6 million and N5.956 for House of Reps members. Severance gratuity for a senator for a four-year stint is N6.09 million, for Reps it is N5.956. Other allowances include those for motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance for which senators are entitled to N1.52 million each and their House of Reps counterparts pocket N1.489 million. For constituency, senators get N5 million while Reps get N4.985 million, and for domestic allowance, senators get N1.519 million each while Reps take home N1.488 million.
The list is by no means exhaustive as the legislators are also entitled to five personal assistants each paid from the public purse; entertainment allowance; recess allowance; utilities allowance;newspapers/periodicals; house maintenance, etc.
It is instructive, however, to note here that our lawmakers are not the only public officeholders whose allowances far outstrip their salaries. The same rapacious tendencies are replicated in the executive arm. Ministers and presidential aides are also entitled to 15 different allowances which are more than six times higher than their annual salaries. For instance, the annual allowances that are monetised for ministers is N12,678,968, as against an annual salary of N2,026,4000, while monetised allowances for each presidential aide is N12,142,968.75, as against an annual salary of N1,942,875.
The other numerous allowances are calculated as percentages of the annual salaries. While some are more than 100 percent of the salaries, others are much lower than 100 percent. For a minister, the motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance is 75 percent of the annual salary, personal assistant is 25 percent, domestic staff is 75 percent, entertainment 45 percent, periodicals 15 percent, accommodation 200 percent, furniture 300 percent, severance/gratuity 300 percent, and leave allowance 10 percent. The same percentage applies to the presidential aides.
Meanwhile, this is not the end of the nightmare. The governors in the various states are also engrossed in their own bazaar. Government Houses across the land are suffused with a retinue of aides and public officials, who in reality are nothing but parasites. The ostentatious lifestyles of the governors can be seen in their convoys of cars. Predictably, their wives are not left out. Many of these spendthrift governors are so ensconced in this lifestyle of stinking opulence that they have forgotten to pay civil servants and pensioners. To worsen matters, even in these dire times, they have continued to draw their security allowance. Certainly, even the British Raj did not indulge in this kind of monstrosity.
It is instructive to note that what we have enumerated here are the visibles. What about the invisibles in the form of brazen corruption and outright theft of public funds? Certainly, our founding fathers and mothers did not envisage a situation in which the country will be pillaged to the ground in the name of governance, which even remains a fantasy.
Therefore, and in the bid to save this country from becoming a hell-hole, there must be an overhaul of this monstrous structure and, consequently, a cut in monumental resources being wasted to satiate the greed of a few public officials. Let it not be said that there was a country whose dream, courtesy of democracy, was turned into a long nightmare by selfish and unpatriotic individuals.