As legislators from various
Nigerian political parties undergo primaries in an attempt to seek the voters
mandate in 2015, one scorecard remains woeful on their respective incumbent
records.
The low
number of bills passed and huge sums of money expended on such unproductive
legislative duties.
The 7th National
Assembly (2011 -2015) inaugurated on 6th June, 2011, has managed to pass only
104 bills out of the 1,063 bills before it in the three and half years since
inauguration, according to BusinessDay’s analysis of bill progression data from
the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) an Abuja based non-partisan,
non-profit firm.
The prorated
cost of running the 7th assembly since its inauguration in 2011 till date,
amounts to N573.2 billion ($3.18 billion), meaning N5.73 billion was spent on
average by the legislature to pass one bill.
The near 40
percent drop in oil prices is also raising questions about the cost of running
the assembly and its effectiveness in the face of a potential fiscal and
monetary crisis.
“What has the
National Assembly said or done about the recent slide in crude oil prices?”
asked Ayo Teriba, an economist and CEO of research firm Economic Associates, at
the BusinessDay energy conference held last month.
“This is
democratic ineffectiveness,” Teriba said.
Nigerian
legislators are the highest paid in the world, meaning there is a legitimate
need for a cutback on their outsized budgets as a fall out from the austerity
measures announced by the finance minister.
The NASS
budgeted a total of N682.7 billion between 2011 and 2014 to run its legislative
activities made up of N232.7 billion for 2011, and N150 billion each for 2012,
2013, and 2014.
The average
Nigerian Senator earns N353.7 million or $2.1 million per annum, made up of a
basic salary (N2.48 m) and numerous allowances, including, constituency (N4.96
m), hardship (N1.2 m), accommodation (N4.9 m) and car allowance (N9.9 m), among others, data seen
by BusinessDay show.
This compares
with $104,000 per annum for South African legislators, $74, 500 for Kenyan,
$46, 500 for Ghanaians, $174,000 for U.S, and $157, 600 per annum for Brazilian
legislators.
In terms of
lawmakers’ salaries as a ratio of GDP per capita, the gap is even much wider.
While the
salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 700 times the country’s GDP per person of
$3,000 that of a British member of parliament is just 2.7 times.
This means it
will take an average Nigerian worker about 700 years to earn the yearly salary
of a Nigerian legislator.
The NASS
budget for 2014 is also equivalent to 13.3 percent of the FG’s 2014 capital expenditure
budget of N1.12 trillion.
“The drop in
revenues available for people in 2015 is significantly higher than the drop in
oil prices,” said Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives Company.
“Things are
different now and politicians have to know the buffers are gone,” Rewane said,
adding that politicians may still choose personal interest over cutting
spending on themselves.
Meanwhile 73
percent of people in Nigeria thought that parliament or legislature was
affected by corruption, data from Transparency Internationals (TI) most recent
global corruption barometer shows.
Major pieces
of legislation left undone by the legislators include the Petroleum Industry
Bill (PIB), which aims to unify all the necessary legislation in one bill and
provide a clear framework for investment in Nigeria’s energy sector.
Other
important bills awaiting passage are the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank
(Guarantee) Act, Agricultural Processing Zones (Est. etc) Bill 2014, Nigerian
Railway Corporation Act (Amendment) Bill, 2011, a Health insurance amendment
Bill, and National Housing Trust Fund Bill, 2011.
The assembly
comprises a 109-member Senate and the 360-member House of Representatives.
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