National Assembly members receive over N1.12bn per tenure as salaries — Senate President
…Denies Assembly being a rubber stamp to Executive
…Lawan-led Assembly not serving Nigerians but Buhari — Fadaka
…9th national assembly, worst in Nigeria’s history — Spokesman, Labour Party
Uthman Salami, Abimbola Abatta, Joel Oladele and Bankole Taiwo
Senate President, Ahmed Lawan disclosed on Monday that members of the National Assembly receive over N1.12billion salaries per tenure.
According to him, the total salary of a senator is about 1.5 million naira and 1.3 million naira for a member House of Representatives.
The Senate President equally denied the allegations that the 9th National Assembly is a rubber stamp of the executive.
Lawan spoke at the Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja.
Speaking at the lecture tagged, “The Legislature, Legislative Mandate and The People- The Reality and The Public Perception,” Lawan noted that the cooperation of the 9th Assembly with the executive has improved efficiency in law making.
He emphasised that as at November 2021, about 2,500 Bills have been introduced; 769 in the Senate and 1,634 in the House of Representatives.
On the three arms of government, Senator Lawan said although they are constitutionally equal, the legislature, being the first arm of government constitutionally, the closest and the most accessible by the people, easily lends itself to public scrutiny and sometimes take the blame even for government decisions that fall outside its legislative competence.
He, however, explained that the three arms of government have a responsibility to each other and an obligation to Nigerians, thus must have a cordial relationship based on mutual respect for constitutional rights and mandate to succeed.
Noting how the cooperation of the 9th Assembly with the executive has improved efficiency in law making, he said the number of Acts gazetted increased as compared with different regimes since 1999; Olusegun Obasanjo (1999-2006) 82 Acts; Umar Musa Yar’Adua (2007-2009) 38 Acts; Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (2010-2015) 40 Acts and Muhammdu Buhari(2015-date) 84 Acts.
While trying to clear the negative conception around the National Assembly and its operations, Senator Lawan said the salaries of the members of the National Assembly as approved by the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is included in the budget allocated to the National Assembly.
He said, “The total salary of a senator is about N1.5 million and N1.3million for a member House of Representatives.
“The average office running cost for a senator and a member House of Representatives is N13million and N8million, respectively.
“The budget of the National Assembly since 1999 have never gone above N150billion, which accounts for about 3% of the annual budget.”
He also addressed the issue of constituency projects and zonal intervention projects, stating that the system allows legislators to nominate projects for implementation in their constituencies but they do not implement them.
His words, “In line with their legislative mandate, they exercise oversight over the process. Corruption in Nigeria is a complex issue.
“Though corruption in any arm of government is not acceptable and must be condemned, to, however, singling out one arm of government without any hard evidence is to undermine the authority of that institution.
“The purchase of operational vehicles for members of the National Assembly has received extensive media attention.”
Maintaining that the major factor that contributed to the misconception of the legislature stemmed from the school of thought that politics is a ‘dirty game’ and politicians are ‘dirty,’ he said if civil servants from the rank of assistant director and above are entitled to official vehicles and some ministers have a convoy of cars, he doesn’t see why the allocation of a Toyota camry and a Land Cruiser to members would be such a hideous proposition.
He, however, assured that the 9th Assembly would continue to improve public perception on the legislature.
Lawan-led Assembly not serving Nigerinas but Buhari — Fadaka
A Chieftain of the leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ayo Fadaka has described the 9th senate under the leadership of Senator Ahmed Lawal as a lame duck who is not defending the interest of the nation but only dance to the tune of the Mr President.
Ayo Fadaka, the immediate past Zonal Publicity Secretary of PDP, South West said this while reacting to a media report where the Senate president had said that the current National Assembly is not a rubber stamp type.
While speaking to Nigerian NewsDirect, He said; “The current national assembly has failed so woefully to attract the required respect the institution deserves. It does not command enough attention from the executive.
“So many bills pass by it are always treated with disdain by the presidency and Nigerians have even resigned to fate that the assembly that should defend their interest is just a lame duck assembly, never complaining, ever acquiescing to all the whips and caprises of Mr president and the government.
“Nigerians have been going through very tough times, currently the money Nigerians are paying for electricity is so exorbitant. It’s about the highest anywhere in the world people pay to get electricity in their homes and the most discouraging part of it is that after paying this money, Nigerians still end up with having no electricity for it. And the national assembly is just sitting down there watching helplessly as this is going on.
“ In January, Nigerians are brazing up to the reality of an exorbitant fuel price regime that will further drive people below the poverty line. Hence, our national assembly has done nothing to warn the executive not to impoverish Nigerians any further.
“As it is, we do not have a national assembly any longer. The last national assembly we had was the one under the presidency of Dr Bukola Saraki but for now we are under a draconian administration.
“At the onset of the Buhari administration, the presidency and the APC wanted another person to become the senate President but the senators of that era knew what they required to function effectively and identified the person that can be their president and they went all the way to install Bukola Saraki as their president. Of course, the presidency was so disturbed by that development and this manifested through the very many persecutions Bukola Saraki and some other officers of the senate suffered at that time. You would recall that for most part of his tenure as Senate President, he was before the code of conduct tribunal and was severally harassed by EFCC. All that happened because the presidency felt he’s not their man.
“As we are today, the kind of leadership the senate and the house of representatives had during the first tenure of Buhari is different from what we have today and the nation is the worst for it.
“Nigeria is a seriously indebted nation now. Nigeria has borrowed so much that the debt office is even struggling to keep tabs on exactly how much our nation is owing and the unfortunate thing in all of these is that we are borrowing and we cannot see the project for which those borrowings were incurred for. If you ask what these borrowings are meant for, they will readily point to the fact that they are constructing rail lines. While agreeing that rail lines have been built, the question is to what intent are they being built. Is it for commercial purposes or is it for the purpose of servicing and satisfying the consanguinity desire of the Mr President?
“The railway to Niger Republic is certainly not in the interest of the generality of Nigerians. It is to massage the ego of the president who is reaching out to his kins that are across our borders and making every Nigerian pay for a desire to satisfy himself. So, we do not have a national assembly that is defending the interest of the nation.”
9th national assembly, the worst in Nigeria’s history — Spokesman, Labour Party
The acting National Publicity of Labour Party, Comr Abayomi Arabambi on Monday lashed out at the 9th national assembly describing it as the worst in the history of the country.
Comr. Abayomi Arabambi who also doubles as the Chairman, Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) made this assertion while reacting to statement credited to the Senate President, Dr Ahmed Lawan who said that the current leadership of the national assembly has not been a rubber stamp to the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Arabambi revealed that it is very glaring to all Nigerians that there exist an unholy alliance between the current national assembly and the executive such that whatever the government of President Buhari brought before the legislature is always hurriedly passed without much scrutiny.
The Comrade gentleman as he is fondly called said, “Though, the present 9th Assembly had been insisting on its independence, a mere face saving statement because most of its actions and inactions since the inauguration, to large extent, have reinforced the idea that it is a ‘rubber-stamp of the Executive.’
“For instance, the confirmation of ministerial nominees of President Buhari was a shame in all ramifications as most nominees were given automatic clearance by the Senate without any detailed inquiry into their background and capacity to serve as ministers. Others were simply asked to ‘take a bow and go’ at a screening session.
“The ‘take a bow and go’ did not go down well with most Nigerians who felt the Senate should have taken the ministerial nominees to the task.
“The same method has continued to be applied by the Senate in confirmation of other nominees of the President, irrespective of any weighty allegation or petition brought to challenge the eligibility of such nominees. Of what good is this hypocritical attitude to our hard-earned democracy?” He queried
Arabambi revealed further that “as far as I am concerned going by the the activities of the Lawan and Gbajabiamila leadership in the last two years, it’s obvious that there exists an unholy alliance between the legislature and the executive which has done more damage than good for the country.
“This bunch of 9th National Assembly for instance does not subject Buhari’s requests to serious scrutiny, rather they are always in a hurry to do the bidding of their benefactor – the presidency – to the detriment of Nigerians.
“Despite the claims by both leadership of the two chambers that many bills that were beneficial to Nigerians were passed in the last two years of their leadership, I must state here categorically that under the 9th Senate watch, the most wicked, draconian and anti – people bill were rolled out since 2019 like Social Media Bill, Hate Speech, Amnesty for Repentant Terrorists, and the Health Emergency Bill.
“I am also passing a guilty verdict on the ninth Assembly’s loyalty for the current loan burden which the country is grappling with through the executive
“For instance with another request for the consideration and subsequent approval of a fresh external borrowing to the tune of $4.054 billion, Nigeria’s external loan stock is set to reach an all-time high of $45.2bn.
“The proposed addition to the debt stock indicates that external borrowings have skyrocketed the nation’s foreign debt portfolio by 366 per cent since 2015 when the total outstanding foreign debt was $9.7bn, both the red and green chamber failed to live up to the people’s expectations.
“It is on records that Senator Ahmad Lawan’s ninth Senate has become the first to approve foreign loans of over $30bn for President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in the last two years.
“It is unprecedented and historically sad that the ninth senate has not only exposed their huge intellectual, political and financial fraud but has embarrassed Nigerians because since it took off, the 9th senate has approved all the foreign loans requested by the presidency without thorough questioning. The ninth senate under Lawan has portrayed itself anti-people by initiating a bill for hate speech.
“The hate speech bill if allowed to sail through, is another subtle way of bringing back the military draconian decree no 2 (detention without trial) thereby reliving an ugly experience that happened in the past under military juntas.”
Arabambi explained further that the lawmakers amended the Finance Act, which raised the Value Added Tax (VAT) from five per cent to 7.5 per cent and approved the introduction of other tax items, which increased the financial burden of Nigerians.
He insisted that the National Assembly appears to have also continued to reinforce the rubber-stamp tag with the haste with which it considered and passed the 2020 and 2021 Appropriation Bills.
He claimed that, “It is a fact that the lawmakers were yet to be given copies of the 2021 Appropriation Bill when they began to debate the general principles and passed the bill for Second Reading. The Second Reading was done based on the contributions of some lawmakers who relied on the information contained in the budget speech of Mr. President.
“Lawmakers, especially those in the opposition who objected to the passage of the bill for Second Reading were comprehensively overruled. The Senate President insisted that the budget must be passed and transmitted to the Executive to meet the January to December budget cycle which is very unfortunate.
“Thus as a politician and stakeholder in the Nigeria projects, I pass vote of no confidence in the leadership of both the Red and Green Chambers and it is safe to conclude that the 9th National assembly leadership is the worst in Nigeria history.”
