Nigeria Content Online

Human right
activist, Femi Falana has condemned the jumbo pay collected by members
of the National Assembly and stressed the need for Nigerians to
critically examine the total cost of governance in the country.

Mr. Falana said
this over the weekend in Benin City at a lecture/lunchion organised by
members of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association, Edo State
branch. He called on all Nigerians to resist the jumbo salary of the
federal legislators.

Quoting section 70
of the constitution which stipulates that the salaries and allowances
of federal legislators shall be determined and fixed by the revenue
mobilisation allocation and fiscal commission, he faulted the situation
in which only 429 members of the National Assembly of the 140 million
population allocates to themselves 3% of the national budget in the
country where 70% of her populace live on less than N150 a day.

He noted that in
utter violation of the constitution, National Assembly members have
allocated to themselves jumbo emoluments through the appropriation act.

“Whereas the
National Assembly is empowered by the constitution to make laws for
‘the peace, order and good government of the federation’ the laws that
are today being passed by the legislators are designed to satisfy the
interest of a tiny portion of the populace. By this, the NASS should be
made to appreciate that its constitutional duty is to make laws for the
peace, order and good government,” he said.

Mr. Falana said
that in the course of passing the appropriation bill which embodies the
estimates, national legislators, increased the annual budget by
up-surging or sharing power with the President to prepare the budget
and lay it before the assembly, an act, he condemned.

“In the ongoing
debate on the salaries and allowances, federal legislators have claimed
that the over-head of the National Assembly is not 25% but 3%. This is
unacceptable in a country where N18, 000 minimum wage is less than N10,
000 per month. These legislators are the highest paid in the world.” He
said.

Nigerians must act

Mr. Falana
therefore challenged Nigerians, on the on-going debate on the fat pay
of federal legislators, saying that they should not allow the assembly
members and the President to violate the constitution in the passage of
the 2011 appropriation bill into law.