SENATE AND REPS SHOULD BE PART-TIME JOB!

 -Hon Festus Duru

In a bi-cameral legislative system of law making, as  practiced in Nigeria, United States of America and many other countries, two law making houses exist. They are the Senate and the House of Representatives, otherwise, called upper chamber and lower chamber. The two houses are referred as National Assembly (NASS). The Senate in Nigeria is made up of 109 members while the Rep is made up of 360 members. That is total 469 members.

Maintenance of these 469 members has become so outrageous that Nigeria Legislators have been described as the highest paid in the world.

Nigeria annual budgets make provision of huge amount of money every year to maintain this 469 members at the detriment of capital projects and the citizens of approximately 200 million population.

For instance, taking the fiscal year 2020 budget as our paradigm, you will see that out of the total Federal budget of N10.59 trillion, the Federal Legislators alone pocket N128 billion. Out of this N10.59 trillion, capital expenditure was a paltry N2.46 trillion.  Only debt servicing took N2.72 trillion. This debt servicing is N260 billion higher than the capital expenditure.  And we are still not tired of borrowing.

Mind you that this picture is a yearly resemblance ocurance. The total allocation for recurrent expenditure for the year 2020 is approximately 85.2% of the 2020 total budget.

What a sure route to underdevelopment?

If Nigeria must come out of this quagmire, the cost of governance must be drastically reduced, Legislative assignments should be one of the things government has to make as part-time job, and their remunerations should be equivalent to that of University Lecturers. These, among other things, will make more money available for capital projects and reduce the level of desperation at which politicians involve when seeking Legislative positions.

But, if we continue to progress in error on this terrain, development/growth will continue to be a mirage.

Hon Festus Uchechukwu Duru
ADC Ambassadors of Nigeria
durundu@yahoo.com