C-JET alleges gross misconduct by Nigerian Parliamentarians
• Petitions Inter-Parliamentary Union
The President,
Inter-Parliamentary Union,
5, Chemin du Pommier, Case postale 330,
CH -1218 Le Grand-Sconnex,
Geneva –Switzerland.
Mr. President,
GROSS FINANCIAL MISCONDUCT BY NIGERIAN MEMBERS OF THE IPU: An Unprecedented Budget Theft Inflicting Great Harm to the Nigerian People
1. We are a Nigerian non-governmental organization (NGO) engaged in good governance advocacy with particular attention to issues of public finance management, employment, and social justice. We have repeatedly tried, and consistently failed, to make the Nigerian parliamentarians quit the unconscionable misconduct of appropriating morally objectionable jumbo pays to themselves, and thus fuelling corruption and disruptive wage crises in the economy.
2. In outright defiance of the constitutional upper limits approved by the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), by which calculation the recurrent budget of the National Assembly should not exceed N25billion (some $156million), the legislators have mindlessly hiked it to a satanic N150bn (some $938million) bloat through a bogey of allowances, apart from another N100bn smuggled into the budget as “constituency projects” for the 469 legislators. Through many other underhand illegalities, Nigeria’s 469 national parliamentarians have become notorious as about the highest paid lawmakers all over the world, leaving the ordinary citizens as among the world’s poorest. This social contradiction has made nonsense of the idea of democracy fostering good governance and social justice in national development.
3. Various outcries and condemnation have failed to make the legislators see reason to limit their budget to the constitutionally approved remunerations recommended and published by RMAFC. The legislators have disobeyed (even through laughable court injunctions) many law court judgments ordering them to disaggregate their recently contrived lump-sum “statutory transfers” budget (only meant to shield their loot from public scrutiny). The attached advocacy documents are just a few from our own organization only, with many more by other organizations, including The Economist Magazine.
4. The U.K (parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009), Canada (navigation, search), and Nova Scotia (wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia_parliamentary_expenses_scandal) are examples of countries that experienced even lesser parliamentary scandals, and took drastic measures against the affected legislators. The Nigerian case has defied solution due to a current imbalance of political power that has weakened the Executive and left the treasury completely at the mercy of ravenous legislators; the official anti-graft agencies, and the Auditor-General dare not question the rabid malfeasance of the Nigerian Parliament. Hence, this call for the IPU’s intervention to stop the rapacious Nigerian legislators from truncating the democratic process; the people have been fleeced to a state of economic anemia.
5. Senator David Mark and Representative Aminu Tambuwal head each of the arms of Nigeria’s bi-cameral Legislature, and are answerable for these prohibitive pays appropriated by the legislators to the agony of the Nigerian populace. The IPU must use the occasion of this 130th IPU Assembly in Geneva to ask these two men and their colleagues to save Nigeria from a looming Arab Spring by:
1. Limiting the 2014 recurrent budget of NASS to N25billion, as repeatedly demanded.
2. Obeying subsisting court rulings ordering NASS to disaggregate its budget, and showing all the monies paid out to each legislator since May 1999.
3. Publishing the audited accounts of NASS from 1999 to date, even as required by the Constitution which the legislators pledged to uphold.
4. Ceasing from their illegal appropriation and involvement in Security votes and Constituency Projects.
5. Suspending all legislators (including Mr. Farouk Lawan) who are indicted or standing trial in any manner of criminal conduct.
The IPU is requested to give effect to the seriousness of this parliamentary scandal by obtaining a timeline within which Senator Mark and Representative Tambuwal shall respond to the above minimum demands, failing which the Nigerian Parliament should face appropriate sanctions from the IPU.
The attachments testify of the seriousness of Nigerian legislators’ parliamentary scandal. The negative economic, political, social and security impacts are killing more Nigerians than those of HIV/AIDS.
Thanks for a most needed prompt intervention from the IPU.
Victor TC Anyanwu
Snr. Economist/Executive Director.
Phone:+234(0)8036676651: e-mail: transparent.citizens@yahoo.com