Nigeria Content Online

Our
legislators are in an uproar. The event that has led to this
pandemonium is not the abuse of an innocent 13-year-old child by a
member of their ‘hallowed’ chambers. It is also not the fact that women
regularly die at childbirth, as do babies because basic healthcare
facilities are not available. The death of thousands annually on
yawning craters that pass as our roads is also not the source of their
headache. Neither is it the fact that everyday small and medium scale
businesses are shutting down because they cannot afford the cost of
diesel to power their premises, thus leading to an increase in the army
of the unemployed and criminal. That our name has become synonymous
with everything bad, from corruption to fraud, is also not the source
of grief for lawmakers.

Our legislator’s
angst is not because thousands of our graduates come out of university
mostly uneducated without the knowledge and skills to better their
lives and contribute to nation building. The fact that the country is
insolvent – our expenditure is more than our income – is also not the
source of their ire.

There is something
much more important pre-occupying the mind of our lawmakers: a problem
so momentous, that if it is not resolved, things will fall apart and
the centre will no longer hold. Our legislators think they are grossly
underpaid and are therefore seeking an increase in their quarterly
allowance.

You cannot blame
them. Their allowances are a meagre N27.2 million each, hardly
commensurate with all the sterling contributions the ‘Honourable’
members have made to nation building. Think all the laws they have
passed that have made life better for the average Nigerian, enshrined
democracy and ensured that we have a functional society. Think all of
the good businesses they have attracted to their constituencies to
ensure rapid development. Think all the time they have spent on their
home ground listening to the grievances of their constituencies and the
alacrity with which they have jumped back into their jeeps and raced
back to ensure those opinions are heard and respected at the centre of
power.

Our legislators
indeed deserve kudos. An analysis of their achievements in the last two
and a half years in office leaves one totally in awe. They are so
efficient at their job that all appropriation bills that have been put
before them have received prompt attention. In a few cases they have
even showed initiative by increasing the amount of money to be
‘appropriated’.

Why should a group
of people with this enviable record be denied an increase in
emoluments? After all it is not as if they recorded this dazzling list
of achievements while safely cushioned in the lap of luxury. You have
to admit, that their residences in Apo quarters are not comparable at
all to the home of an average Nigeria.

Have we all
forgotten so soon the N628 million that had to be spent on the
renovations of the last Speaker’s residence and that of her deputy,
just to make the homes habitable? You also have to pity our lawmakers
for the many other hardships they have to endure. While many of us have
the luxury of getting our water from the ever-efficient government run
water boards and power from the ever-faithful PHCN, we have forced them
to dig boreholes and rely on generators.

As if that is not
bad enough, they are made to travel, elevated above the ground. What
fun is there to be had from driving in a jeep? The value of each
journey should surely be measured by the experience itself. No jolts
and no bumps. How does one even begin to believe that a journey has
taken place?

Imagine also their
trauma at having to take themselves and their loved ones to foreign
lands at the first inkling of an illness. These sorts of trips are just
so exhausting. The rest of us of course have the privilege of been
treated in Nigerian hospitals and luxuriating in that peculiarly local
brand of hospitality known as ‘dismal health care ‘safe in the
knowledge that money for drugs, needles and other medical sundries will
be footed by relatives who are just a bike ride away and can be relied
upon to provide assistance, no matter their own personal circumstances.

Let us also
remember that our oil wells are in full production and gushing. Plus,
the price of black gold is on the up and up. The country is awash with
petrol dollars and what to do, if not spend them. We have also
diversified our economy and so have multiple sources of income. Foreign
direct investment is on the increase and the Nigerian economy, in total
contrast to that of the rest of the world, is booming.

Nigerians can
afford to be magnanimous. We are lucky to have such a dedicated and
honest bunch as our ‘Legislooters’. After all what is another N540
million quarterly, to a nation that has plenty?