July 21, (THEWILL) – • Slice NASS, Executive’s Ridiculous Allowances Too by Half, Responders Demand
• Planned Nationwide Protest Over Hardship Worry Officials
MAN Urges Allocation to Productivity, Says Manufacturing Now Unattractive
When members of the House of Representatives last Thursday pledged to cut and donate to the Federal Government 50 per cent of their monthly salaries for six months, little did they know they would trigger an immediate debate on the need to cut cost of governance across all sectors and deploy the realised money to revive badly needed social and economic infrastructure.
Two representative views by @DanObed374851 and @USMANBABBA80305 summarise the various reactions on social media. Dan Obed said: “Whether the NASS’ Salary Slash of 50 percent is for six months or one month, it underscores the beauty of the progress we can attain, united and standing up against our Leaders! Now, we must question the legislature if this six months’ gesture is enough to re-position our country financially”
For UsmanBabba, this is just window dressing. He said, “They have to do better than this. I don’t think this is enough to appease Nigerians. So, after six months, everything will slide back to the status quo.”
Explaining further in an interview with THEWILL on Friday, professor of political science at the University of Lagos, Sylvester Odion Akhaine, said the lawmaker’s gesture pales in significance to the enduring call for cutting the cost of governance in the country, a move he thinks will release needed funds for social programmes.
“The gesture by the House of Representatives is not enough. It is surface scratching,” he said, adding, “They need to half their entire monthly take-home package that includes allowances. It will go a long way to reduce income disparity and free funds for social programmes. Even the content of their allowances is outrageous. It should be expunged to reflect objective reality.”
In fact, when THEWILL sought more explanations from the spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Honourable Akin Rotimi, to get a full picture of the donation as the motion on it was scanty, he failed to respond to the questions he asked to be forwarded to him via SMS. The questions were about how the House intends to disburse the money to the Federal Government or whether it would be tied to specified projects; whether other elected and appointed officials across the states would be persuaded to participate as the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas asked of the Senate.
The Presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 general election, Atiku Abubakar, commended the House of Reps for the salary cut, but contended that the gesture was not enough to do the envisaged work.
Reacting on his X account, the former Vice President said, “The sacrifice of members of the House of Representatives is commendable. But it is a drop in the ocean. The demons are in the allowances and not the salaries of the lawmakers and government officials in general.”
WHAT THE HOUSE SAID
That Thursday, the House of Representatives resolved to cut members’ salaries by 50 per cent for six months to support President Bola Tinubu’s government and provide some relief to Nigerians suffering untold hardship due to the government’s harsh economic policies.
The resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance by Ibrahim Isiaka, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Government Affairs, during a plenary.
In an amendment to the motion, the Deputy Speaker of the House Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, pleaded with the lawmakers to cut their salaries by 50 per cent for six months.
According to him, this gesture was to support the government in providing comfort to Nigerians going through hardship. Like Isiaka, he noted that the motion was in response to the planned nationwide protest in August against the government over economic challenges and food insecurity in the country.
Isiaka said that Nigerians have the constitutional right to peaceful assembly and protest to address their grievances, but that maintaining peace and engaging in constructive dialogue with the government was crucial for resolving the nation’s issues. He appealed to the proponents of the proposed nationwide protest in Nigeria to consider and toe the path of patience, dialogue and collaboration.
He said, “We trust that through peaceful engagement and dialogue, we can collectively work towards building a better and brighter future for Nigeria. The issues of insecurity, unemployment, and poverty weigh heavily on the hearts of every Nigerian. The desire for change, for progress, for a better tomorrow is a sentiment that unites us all.”
Noting that the current challenges experienced in the country are similar to global trends, he sued for peace and added that change would not happen overnight but with collective patience, perseverance and commitment to working together towards a common goal.
Interestingly, the lawmakers said the motion would be communicated to all relevant stakeholders and the general public to promote a peaceful and constructive approach to addressing national issues.
FEAR OF LOOMING NATIONWIDE PROTEST
The fear that prompted the Reps’ action is rooted in the ongoing mobilisation of Nigerians in the social media for a protest against economic hardship in the country, starting from August 1. The mobilisers appear faceless except for the 2023 elections presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore and some audio messages from unverifiable origin claiming to be by sympathetic soldiers warning the protesters against turning into a mob that may trigger security agencies to shoot at them.
But last Thursday, the director-general of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu, told journalists in Abuja, that the agency’s nationwide structure had identified the sponsors of the proposed protest and likely flashpoints, adding that the, “identities of many of the brains behind the protest are known, along with their collaborators who are safely residing abroad, and the government is taking necessary actions to stop their subversive plans.”
Deputy National Secretary of the Conference of Political Parties, Comrade James Ezema, in an interview with THEWILL on Friday, said, “I support the action the Representatives have taken in response to the hardship in the country. We have been calling on those in government to also make sacrifices, just as they call on Nigerians to make sacrifices.
“It is a good step, but the real deal is for the government to reduce the cost of governance in the country so that those who have made a career out of politics and spend only four or eight years will not end up with fat retirement benefits, while those who have laboured for more than 35 years find it difficult to access their pensions. For now, the move by the Reps is a good example which should serve as an example across all the various arms of government so that we know that everybody is making sacrifices for the country.”
Painting a picture of a country in deep economic distress where manufacturers as major employers of labour, alongside agriculture, are at the mercy of government policies, such as the devaluation of the Naira, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Otunba Francis Meshioye, said the government can rescue the situation by synergising the monetary policy, the fiscal and economic policies.
In a note sent to THEWILL on Friday, the MAN president who asserted that a volatile business environment such as Nigeria’s has made business projections difficult called for the implementation of otherwise good ideas of government to the latter, said that as at 2023 about 733 manufacturing firms had ceased to operate in the country, adding that scarce food and poor energy, which are driving inflation, have to be solved urgently.
Meshioye said, “When you have high interest rates and high energy cost in the face of the fuel subsidy removal, floating of forex which led to the devaluation of the Naira, manufacturing becomes unattractive and discouraging. You cannot expand your investment. In the end, you have to pass on part of the costs to the consumer who is already contracted and so has to prioritise their purchases. So, the manufacturer has less turnover, less demand and higher stock, all of which make it difficult to meet stakeholders’ demands, pay salaries and so on. Reduction of cost of governance, patronage of made in Nigeria goods and sufficient forex allocations would go a long way in addressing the difficulty experienced by the real sector.”
WAY FORWARD
Professor Akhaine contends that the Reps should take a permanent cut that “reflects levels of income in other sectors.” He urged the Senate to lead by example and join the bandwagon.
“Whatever happened to the much-trumpeted implementation of the Oronsaye Report?” Atiku asked in his X account and then added: “Recently, the ballooning of the MDAs with attendant cost implications has been observed. There is too much wastage and prioritisation of non-essential expenditures. What is desirable is an across-the-board cut in expenses…”
Meshioye, who maintained that President Tinubu is focused and has passion to transform the economic and political landscape of the country, urged that those who share the same views with him should be deployed in strategic institutions, agencies and offices to put to practice what the government preaches.
Amos Esele is the Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
