Chitzi Ogbumgbada

President Yar’Adua is seeking to slash the salaries of political office holders. When done politicians in the three tiers of government will experience a reduction in their annual basic salaries. This, of course, is yet theoretical, embryonic in so far as it yet to be implemented.

For some, this move is a response, albeit tepid in nature, to the allegation (or observation) that the Yar’Adua administration has dragged on now with an elephantine weariness. Indeed, I have watched this administration with something of a befuddlement. It seems that the president is playing the “cool guy” to the hilt. One of his aides once described him as a “methodical man”. Does he have a bag of goodies which he intends to unveil during his tenure’s end? Time will tell. But for now the pay cut.

We were told that the pay cut is necessary to reflect the dwindling income of the nation. Basic salaries of public officers were, without any tangible reason, hiked in 2007. By this increase the basic annual salary of a member of the House of Representatives, for instance, went up from N794, 084 to N1, 985,212.50. His counterpart in the Senate had a pay increase of N993, 697 to a new figure of N2, 484,242.50.

Add up these with the numerous allowances and one sees a public office holder going home with an over satiated stomach. After all is done, lay these sums side by side with the national minimum wage of workers (at a paltry N5, 500 per month) and you get – an incongruous juxtaposition!

 What inspired this hike in the first place, this crass disregard for the notions of equality? Once we were confronted with the proposition that an increase in the salaries of elected public officials will insulate them from corruption. Is that possible? Corruption today in Nigeria is legendary, dissecting every facet of the nation, criss-crossing its length and breadth, and resting cosily in government and its red-taped bureaucracy. Let no one entertain the false hope that corruption will stop or – even more optimistically- decline if the salaries of public office holders are increased. In the Fourth Dimension we could permit this thought.

But not in our dear country. The manner with which corruption is perpetrated in Nigeria, the magnitude with which public officers embezzle public funds, constrains right thinking men and women to – alas – diagnose a cause for this malady – Kleptomania!

And proof of this is not lacking: Surrounded with so much money, our worthy public servants, “servant-leaders”, “chief-servants” etc, enter into a state of bemusement, wondering whether their eyes are playing an optical illusion, desiring never to be woken up. That desire to amass as much wealth as possible because the propeller, the drive that motivates them. As the moth yearns for a bulb of light, so do these our elected minders long for our common wealth.

At least all politicians should be able to boast of being proud owners of magnificent edifices and James Bond-like sports cars. This gives their own kleptomania an added economic motive: an irresistible desire to line their pockets before the bell tolls. And the bell may toll if, as happening these days, an election tribunal nullifies an incumbent’s farce of an election, or a Chief Executive wakes up one morning and decides that it is his cabinet had some reshuffling.

So with little or no moral restraint they trim the icing on the National Cake, disregarding their doctor’s warning that too much sugary substance is dangerous to health. Oftentimes it is alleged that Nigeria is a poor country. But little truth is told of the large revenues drilled from crude oil. And it continues to remain the nation’s singular misfortune that one mortal, one individual sits over this Golden Egg, incubating it with his or her warmth, and finally hatching it into a personal account in some far way exotic country.

Therefore no one should listen to the argument that high salaries will slow down the rate of corruption. How about increasing the pay of the ordinary Nigerian worker to insulate him or her from crime? After all, scientific studies have linked high crime rates to economic and sociological factors. How about raising the pay of that cleaner at the Federal Secretariat, who goes home with a chronic disease called minimum wage? If that is done our clergy will have been saved the effort of converting a likely moral reprobate. 

In the midst of growing concerns for the global economy which seems to be pulsating in unmistakable strides towards a marked grave, it has become expedient for countries to take bold economic measures. Perhaps this was what prompted President Obama to place a cap on the salaries of his political appointees. Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State and the members of his executive council followed this example by declaring that they were ready to take a 12% cut in their salaries. This measure being implemented nation wide will most likely aid economy.

The slow-gripping ghost of recession is emboldened more by such factors as high salaries for political appointees. It is very fortunate for them that they are protected from cold hands of recession, or the deathly embrace of that its dangerous offspring christened poverty. Let us assume for one wild moment that because of the global recession, the Federal Government has declared the cost of running the country expensive and, has therefore decided to take some austerity measures, like, declaring some ministries obsolete, and rendering their caretakers redundant. If this happens the hackneyed saying that the “Rain beats on both the Rich and Poor” will have more force.

But will the government use the pay cut as an instrument to coerce organized labour into jettisoning its demand for a wage increase? One can see the government advancing this kind of argument: “Now that we have cut down the salaries of our political appointees, why don’t you discard your demands for a pay increase. After all we are now even.” By the way, Labour is asking for a mere N52, 200 to replace the current apology of N5, 500.  

How can anybody tell them to abandon their agitation when they want to raise the worker to the status of humans? In government establishments today the bulk of work is done by non-political office holders. Mind you, not the ADC’s, PA’s (personal assistants), PA to PA etc. But the typist who must finish that letter, the cleaner who must sweep those corridors, the messenger who must be on hand to run that errand, the labourer who must mown the lawn and trim the flowers. These are the people that bear the heaviest burden of running a government institution.

Yet their salaries are so-so. Till their conditions improve every talk of efficiency in the public service will be a mere waste of time. Till then, that lady whom I met at the Federal Secretariat in Rivers State will never come to work early. She usually comes after 10 am. At least that was when she came the day I had gone to make an enquiry at the. Her reason for coming late? Apathy to work. Little pay for much work. Her pay can be increased instead of firing her. And then let us see if she would not pursue her work with a dedication yet unrivalled anywhere. 

Robot  # 1 | 05.03.2009 22:57

Chitzi Ogbumgbada President Yar’Adua is seeking to slash the salaries of political office holders. When done politicians in the three tiers of government will experience a reduction in their annual basic salaries. This, of course, is yet theoretical, embryonic in so far as it yet to be implemented. For some, this move is a response, albeit tepid in nature, to the allegation (or observation) that the Yar’Adua administration has dragged on now with an elephantine weariness. Indeed, I have watched this administration with something of a befuddlement. It seems that the president is playing the “cool guy” to the hilt. One of his aides once described him as a “methodical man”. Does he have a bag of goodies which he intends to unveil during his tenure’s end? Time will tell. But for now the pay cut. We were told that the pay cut is necessary to reflect the dwindling income of the nation. Basic salaries of public officers were, without any tangible reason, hik...Read the full article.