“SERVANT LEADER” GETS 150% PAY INCREASE: Does the President deserve it?
Only a few days ago, the Nigerian Senate passed into a law a bill titled Bill to amend Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances) Act. The implication of this law is that the salary of the President of Nigeria has been increased by a whopping 150% (from N1,405,882.00 to N3,514,705.00). Other beneficiaries of this largesse include the Vice President and senior members of the bench). Although this bill is subject to approval by the House of Representatives and the signature of the President, I will not bet a dollar on any of them refusing to do so.
The minimum wage in Nigeria is N90,000.00 (N7,500.00 a month) per annum. If this pay increase sails through as expected, the president’s new salary would be 39.1 times the minimum wage of the average Nigerian. The minimum wage in the United States (a common reference point for Nigerian politicians when it suits their purpose) is $12, 168.00 ($5.85 per hour) per annum and the salary of the president is $400,000.00, 32.9 times the minimum wage of the average American.
President Yar Adua came into office promising to be the servant leader of the Nigerian people; an indication of his understanding that real political power belongs to the people. He has been in office for 8 months now and his supporters have given Nigerians different reasons why his administration is operating at less than optimum capacity. Whatever the justifications for the current state of affairs regarding his governance of the country, one thing that the common man/woman in Nigeria knows very well is that conditions continue to be very excruciating for him or her. There continues to be irregular power supply, insecurity of lives and property, joblessness and political and economic impunity by members of the ruling elite. It is against this background that President Yar Adua is getting a pay raise.
To be fair to the president, he has not indicated whether he will accept the pay raise by signing the bill into law or reject it by refusing to sign or vetoing it. As a man who has repeated told Nigerians about his beliefs in honesty, sincerely and fairness, it will be a slap on the face of the same Nigerian for him to accept this whopping pay increase. The average Nigerian has not received even a 1% increase in salary since the commencement of his administration and one of the president’s official responsibilities is bettering the economic well being of Nigerians. Consequently, I respectfully challenge him to practice what he preaches by rejecting this pay increase because he has not done enough to justify it. The “servant” cannot get a 150% pay raise while the master is starving and his resources dwindling? Life for most Nigerians is still a minute by minute struggle against hunger, sickness, oppression, injustice and more.
The president must be wary of the shenanigans that line the country’s political landscape the way mines dot the former battlegrounds of Mozambique, Vietnam and other countries that have seen war. In addition to not deserving the pay raise, it is possible that members of the National Assembly may be setting a trap for the president. It maybe that once the president accepts and starts enjoying his “new and improved” salary, the Oliver Twists who make up the majority in both houses will then use it as the foundation for legislating their own pay raise, knowing that the president own pay raise would have compromised his ability to object to such a move. It is therefore safe to say that the long term implications of this bill may not have fully manifested themselves.
The Senate that has had time to increase the president’s salary is the same body that has been unable to pass into law the Freedom of Information bill, despite the immense potential that its passage holds for the fight against corruption. I suspect they know that with the passage of the Bill, the “jig will be up” for them in terms of their ability to hide information from the people.
This is the same do nothing senate (excuse me president Bush senior) that collected, with reckless abandon, millions of naira in what its members believed to be car allowance only for them to whine about repayment when it became clear that the payments were loans that would have to be repaid. What this incident says about these senators is that they are prepared to grant themselves allowances that they do not deserve as long as it is “free” but will be very careful about making financial commitments if such would result in repayment or a depletion of their assets. So much for serving the people.
This is the same Senate that is headed by a man who cannot explain the source of millions of British pounds that has been frozen by a British Court in a family law proceeding commenced by his ex-wife in England. And this is the same Senate that was accused a few days ago of habouring “419ers” by one of its own members. The accusation came from Senator Nuhu Aliyu of Niger state, who also happens to be a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police. The same Senator threatened to reveal the names of the “ 419” Senators on the floor of the senate but was cut short by the Senate president David Mark who cheek-in-“tonguely” referred the matter to the Senate Ethics and Privileges Committee. The Senator from Benue state knew that Senator Aliyu was not grandstanding because he was the same Senator who a few years ago claimed to have arrested a majority of the then senate members for one crime or the other while he served with the Nigerian Police Force. I watched the proceeding on the Nigerian Television Authority and expected the Senate president to have referred the matter to the Nigerian Police. Internet news portal Pointblanknews has since gone on to publish what it believes to be the names on Senator Aliyu’s list.
For anyone who is bold enough to challenge the president’s salary, he or she will be reminded by the average government apologist and egunje advocate in Nigeria that the salary of Nigeria’s president is lower than that of the President of United States. What you will not hear from them is that the minimum wage in Nigeria is N90,000.00 per annum while it is about N1,521,000.00 per annum in the United States. Nigeria’s is one seventeenth of the United States. They will also not tell you that while the president of United States is supervising the number one economy in the world with an annual GDP of over one trillion dollars, a population of over 300 million people with a minimum wage of N1, 521,000.00 per annum, a military with millions of members, fighting multiple wars around the world, and discharging a self-imposed obligation to be the policeman of the world, the responsibilities attached to the office of the president of Nigeria are far less onerous. I have a lot of respect for the country and the office of the presidency, but I also believe that individuals should be paid for work done, not in comparison to the pay of someone doing a far more complicated job. Comparing the salary of the president of Nigeria to that of United States is like asking for that the CEO of a company that is years and miles away from reaching the top should be paid same salary as the CEO of a Fortune 500.
The money that is being spent recklessly by all levels of government in Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians, including the homeless and those sleeping under the nation’s bridges. Notwithstanding their opinion of themselves, the members of Nigeria’s National Assembly are not superior to the people they represent and that is what the law says. For the avoidance of doubt, they should check the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria dealing with the equality of all Nigerians. Something has to be done about this. Several telephone calls to Senator David Mark’s constituency office have gone unanswered. The emails have also received the same treatment. I would like to state here that the calls and emails dealt with this issue and nothing else. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole did not do better. Several calls to one of his two numbers were never answered. My emails to him received the same treatment as that meted out by Senator David Mark. This maybe a case of “like senator, like representative.
The people must now take it upon themselves to stop this increase for a job that has not been done. They must stop the general profligacy of the ruling elite. I urge them to email their House and Senate representatives at the National Assembly in particular and Senator David Mark (dmark@nassnig.org) and Bankole Dimeji (bdimeji@nassnig.org) of the House of Representatives. They should be told, politely but firmly, how disgraceful this presidential pay increase is in particular and how irresponsibly they are handling the affairs of the country. Since these National Assembly members were supposedly “elected” by the Nigerian people, they are bound by the legitimate wishes of the people who elected them. Membership of the National Assembly is not a license to financial, political and economic recklessness.
By Majekodunmi Adega
madega@naijanet.com