Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, delivering the convocation lecture at Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State at the weekend, said: "If you look at the budget, the bulk of government spending is revenue; revenue expenditure. That is a big problem. 25 per cent of overhead of the federal government goes to the National Assembly."
You might have heard that the Nigerian Senate summoned the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi along with the minister of finance to appear before four of its committees over the CBN Governor's claim that federal lawmakers are taking 25 per cent of the government’s recurrent expenditure.
Sanusi appeared before the Senate yesterday and confirmed right before them that the Federal lawmakers are taking 25 per cent of the government’s recurrent expenditure. Lamido Sanusi refused to apologise over his comments. He opened his defence by stating that what he actually said was that “25 per cent of overheads of the Federal Government goes to the NASS”.
and added the clincher: said: “My name is Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, (my name is) not Central Bank Governor. I enjoy my job but if you want me to quit, I will honourably quit”.
Guys, That is the diffrence between a principled MAN and opportunists and looters. FINALLY, A MAN WITH BALLS!
Despite brutal questioning by a Senate select committee, Central Bank governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday stood by his comments that the National Assembly’s budget for overhead is 25.4% of the nation’s total.
Mr Sanusi withstood strong attempts to browbeat him into admitting that the figures were at least lower than that, or that he was misquoted by the media.
My friends, There should be a public outcry to stop this looting and cut this damn oversize compensation packages.
Compensation is expected to be commensurate to performance and productivity. Those criteria are not met by our current National Assembly. What bill has been passed that impacted positively on Nigerians?
Almost 12 years of democracy, we are still praying for basic necessities of life. Truth be told all indices of decent living have declined in Nigeria.
Corruption has become Generally Accepted Practice (GAP). Corruption puts a wide gap between the haves and have-nots.
Speaker, House of Representatives Mr. Dimeji Bankole while speaking at a University of Lagos lecture said: "Corruption in Nigeria is perpetuated by corrupt and inept civil servants and not the political class".
Lying Bankole is dabbling into what is called 'Psychological Projection'- "Projecting our problems and deficiencies unto other people".
Psychological projection is the phenomenon whereby one projects one's own thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings, and so on onto someone else (usually another person - onto neighbours, other drivers, political figures, racial groups, states and other countries)
The reason for this conclusion is simple.
The Chairman of RMAFC, Mr. Hamman Tukur, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC, the body having final say on government revenue and remunerations) once alleged that virtually every political office holder in Nigeria illegally awards remunerations to himself beyond what the RMAFC has approved. (More on this below)
Even Dimeji Bankole himself was recently forced by the House of Representatives to reduce his quarterly allowance from N140m to N100m or from an annual allowance of N560m to N400m to minimise the blatant discrepancy between his take home pay and that of his colleagues in the House.
Read the facts below and please tell me who is killing Nigeria.
Figures from the RMAFC show that the salary review of political office holders till date revealed that a mere 17,474 officials earned N1.12 trillion yearly. Of this N1.12 trillion about N94, 959,545,401.20 billion is spent on salaries and N1, 031,654,689,033.18 trillion goes to allowances annually.
Under former President Yar’adua, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) advocated that 16,540 of these political officeholders should undergo a pay cut in line with former President Yar’adua’s proposal in 2008.
The officers are: Federal Executive (472); Federal Legislature (1,152); Local Government Executive (3,096) and local government legislature (8,692).
Please note that according to the document from RMAFC, officers taking this large lump sum mentioned above, approximately 17,500 officials only constitute 0.014 per cent (less than a quarter of a percent) of Nigeria’s estimated 160 million people.
Again, Note, it is common knowledge that the salaries of these officers amount to nothing compared to the juicy fringe benefits that accrue to them.
It could be recalled that ministers, advisers, legislators salaries were all jerked up in 2007 and 2008. While the members of National Assembly got 100% pay rise which would cost Nigerian tax payers N52.4 billion every year, and an additional N15.02 billion as multi-purpose allowances given to the lawmakers on quarterly basis, the package accruing to the federal executives had jumped by over 1,000 percent to N98 billion due to their allowances as compared N65.5 billion paid the federal executives during the last regime.
In contrast, the last time Nigerian workers ever had an enhanced salary package was in 2000 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo announced the N5, 500 and N7, 500 minimum wages both for state and federal workers respectively. Today, the workers are still begging for N18, 500 Minimum wages!
Other Illegalities
Of all these allowances, the most intriguing is the constituency allowance. What is constituency allowance? You may ask. It is an allowance approved by Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). The constituency allowance as approved by RMAFC is supposed to be 200% of the basic salary for politician but in reality, they are paid far more than that. The major flaw of this allowance is that the law does not require the politicians to file reports of how the money is spent.
The executives are not left behind; in fact, the legislative plunder is like a child’s play compared to what the executives are illegally taking away from the system.
In addition to their constituency allowances, It is no longer a news that governors collect billions of naira as security votes which are unaccounted for and which makes everyone wonder which security are they providing with the money.
According to Davidson Iriekpen in an article titled, Security Vote - for Whose Security? “Every year, billions of naira is allegedly squandered under the guise of security votes. The funds suspected to be illegal, are purportedly being used to provide security for the president, governors and their domains, whereas they are being transferred into personal bank accounts. In spite of these huge sums of money, killings, kidnappings, cultism and other security threats are on the increase across the states. At the federal level, funds are allocated to the Ministry of Defence for the upkeep and welfare of the armed forces and the police, yet billions are still voted for the President as security votes whose impact is unknown.”
Many of the governors appropriate the sum ranging from several hundreds of millions of naira to billions monthly as security vote. And also according to human rights lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, security vote is an illegality and irresponsibility on the part of the country's leaders. He condemned the governors for appropriating security votes to themselves even when they know that it is unconstitutional. He also argued that the governors who indulge in security votes rob the society of essential resources.
In a report by RMAFC chairman, Hamman Tukur to the presidency, "He said the Federal, State and Local Governments flout the remuneration provisions made by the commission through frivolous foreign trips, arbitrary appointment of aides and use of excessively large motorcades.
Notwithstanding this warning, this illegality thrives from the presidency to the council. As the president takes billions of naira in monthly security vote, he also takes several millions in constituency allowance.
These are facts! so who is killing Nigeria...the hapless civil servant insisting on a paltry tip of 500 naira before he does his job, or the politician looting trillions from the economy?
