Weeks, even days before the Christmas celebration, there was palpable tension in the House of Representative as many members openly complained of being broke due to two months salaries owed them.
A South-East lawmaker, who didn’t want his name in print, confessed to Saturday Sun that the issue of unpaid salaries was a source of concern to lawmakers. He said different members had taken turns to speak with principal officers of the lower House including the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara seeking his intervention to the management of the National Assembly in order to get their salaries paid before Christmas.
“We are owed two months’ salary. Things have really been tough. I have received hundreds of phone calls and texts from my constituents. But there is little I can do to help them”, he said.
“We pleaded with the leadership of the House to intervene for our salaries to be paid at least before Christmas day because we were already in the Yuletide season. But as you might have heard, even as at the day we adjourned (22nd December), we didn’t receive anything”, the source added.
Another issue bothering lawmakers is that the figures of what they are paid as salaries keep changing from time to time. “I cannot categorically tell you how much my salary is, because the figures regularly change,” a lawmaker from the South-South, told this paper.
Also, Saturday Sun findings showed that the National Assembly management has resorted to paying lawmakers monies for their constituency projects in installments, along with their salaries. This is a clear departure from the former practice of lawmakers receiving constituency project funds in lump sums, quarterly. This has led to lawmakers practically toning down on their much-talked about flamboyance, especially as it was the case in the last months of 2015.
Though it remains a subject of controversy as at 2014, the quarterly constituency project allowance of a House of Representatives member was put at about N36 million. While their annual salaries, according to RMFAC, is about N9.7 million.
Already boxed to a corner by the trend of delayed salaries, Saturday Sun exclusively gathered that Speaker Yakubu Dogara was hailed by his colleagues when, during the last meeting lawmakers held with President Muhammadu Buhari, he told the president to see the allocation of funds for constituency projects as sacrosanct.
According to sources, who attended the December 9, 2015 meeting, Dogara explained to the president the need to retain the idea of constituency projects, following the latter’s expressed reservations of the appropriateness of constituency projects as he believes that capital projects should be handled by the executive arm at the state level. It is even more so now that the country is going through tough times and seeking for ways to reduce unnecessary government spending.
N100 billion was allocated for constituency projects in 2014, with about N51.88 billion not released, owing to lack of funds. Nevertheless, the government provided additional N50 billion for the projects in the 2015 budget.
No Christmas largess from Executive Arm
Unlike in times past during festive periods when lawmakers would be inundated with gifts from heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over which their committees perform oversight function, it was learnt that not much came the way of the House last Christmas. A top National Assembly staffer, who works in one of the juicy committees, confirmed: “I don’t think anything came the way of many committee chairmen, including mine”. He cynically added that those who gave lawmakers gifts for Christmas did so secretly. According to him, lawmakers, probably for the first time, had to cut their coat according to their cloth. “This probably is the first time a honourable member will have to plan according to his salary,” he said. Saturday Sun was equally told that “nothing” came through the informal channels, most especially the presidency, through which lawmakers would have been given money to celebrate during festive periods.
Lawmaker’s austerity measures
Inquiries revealed that as at the first working day of this year, Monday, January 4, members of the House had still not been paid. Things could really get ugly in the House as lawmakers, even before Christmas, had adopted smart measures to stave off hangers-on. Getting into the National Assembly for uninvited guests is longer as easy as it used to be. Despite this, security measures were scaled up towards the end of last year to ensure that unwanted visitors wouldn’t stray into the two new extension wings of the National Assembly complex, where lawmakers’ offices are located. Lawmakers equally devised means of avoiding staff of the National Assembly who are fond of asking for favours.
Officially, the National Assembly is far from being broke. It is a well-funded arm of government with N115 billion allocated to it in the 2016 budget. This is even as it enjoys independence and it is not affected by the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy. But some lawmakers have resorted to borrowing from banks to finance and deliver constituency projects and to meet up with the expectations of their constituents.
According to a member of the House from the North-East, he borrowed about N40 million to fund the construction of a skills acquisition/civic center in his constituency. “I am happy that I got the loan facility. It is the smart thing to do because by end of my second year here, I will have something tangible to show to my people,” he revealed, adding: “Any wise first-term lawmaker has to find a means to build projects he can campaign with for a second term-half way into his time here”. The lawmaker noted that waiting for the payment of salaries could mean delayed execution of projects as well as failure to meet up with the financial demands of constituents, which he described as “unwise”.
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