14 Sep 2007 |
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Hardship allowance: A dissenting view THE Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has been in the news repeatedly lately. This is through its attempts to get the National Assembly to pass a new Revenue Allocation Formula Act, and its proposals on a new pay package for public officials including the President, the Vice President, Governors and their Deputies, legislators, judges and local government chairmen. I am interested in the latter, and the departure point for this commentary is a report on the subject in the Punch newspaper of September 8 at page 9. Sections 70, 84, 111, 124, and 31(a-e) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, and the RMAFC Act of 1993 empower the body, among other functions, to fix the remuneration of public officers, and intervene in the operation and management of state and local government joint accounts. But what ideological imperatives motivate the RMAFC under its current leadership? I see a predilection towards profligacy, and a questionable emphasis on reward rather than service: I consider the outrageous allowances being proposed for public officials by the RMAFC rather scandalous. The basic principle here is that public service ought to be about sacrifice and dedication. Those who have been elected or appointed to serve Nigeria in one capacity or the other should see their elevation as a mark of honour and as an opportunity to contribute to the making of Nigeria, its progress and development. It is unfortunate that the bane of the Nigerian society is the conversion of public service into an opportunity for self-enrichment. It is worse when a state organ such as the RMAFC becomes a vehicle for promoting the idea of public service as a profit-oriented exercise. In the past eight years, and now since May 2007, there has been a loud and irritating emphasis on the payment of fat allowances to public officials. Public service is being promoted as a lucrative choice and not surprisingly, politics has become a job for a growing population of fortune-hunters. The assumption that jumbo pay and fat allowances for public officials would curb corrupt tendencies has not been proven. If anything, it has resulted in rising expectations, a fixation with status and a primitive hunger for more money. To reform the Nigerian state, its character as an arena for primitive accumulation should be de-constructed and reversed. The present administration had hardly settled down when it was reported that members of the National Assembly - Senators and members of the House of Representative - had been paid jumbo allowances (in the region of N48 million each) to take care of their pressing needs; to enable them settle down in Abuja. The public outcry against this eventually died down as each lawmaker pocketed the fat allowances. The report in The Punch of September 8 is a worse indication of the mindset that public service should be about personal profit. The RMAFC outlines a new pay package for the President, Vice President, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Governors/Deputy Governors, Judges, Local Government Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen of Local Governments and members of federal boards. I have no problems with the annual basic salaries as recommended, ranging between a high point of N3,514,705.00 for the President to N853,056.00 for Deputy Local Government Chairmen. But as part of the proposed package, the RMAFC is recommending an increase in what is called hardship allowance( a strange creation which first showed up in the recommended package of 2002). The idea is that the President, the Vice President, the Governors and their Deputies and Judges undergo a lot of hardship in discharging the responsibilities of their office. We are told that they work "seven days a week, even when they are on holidays" (sorry o). The RMAFC added: "In the same vein members of the judiciary spend several hours daily beyond the normal working hours on their jobs, particularly after court session. These arduous tasks have to be recognised". I have no objections to the proposed pay for judges. There is no doubt that their work entails a lot of hardship and that they deserve to be encouraged. But as for the President, the Vice President, Governors and Deputy Governors - what hardship can they possibly be going through? Whereas judges are professionals, doing a job, political office holders are supposed to be men and women who have volunteered to serve the people; to make their remuneration so central is to miss this simple point about service. The RMAFC document is titled "An Act to amend the certain political office holders (Salaries and Allowances etc.) Act 2002 and other matters connected therein." It is already before the National Assembly. The RMAFC is asking that the law should take effect from February 2007, which means that if it is amended as proposed, the government will have to pay arrears of salaries and allowances for about seven months. With the exception of judges, my view is that all the public officers cited in the document are already over-paid. . Since 2002 when their pay package was reviewed - what can Nigerians point to as evidence of their performance, or the hardship that they endured? Is the RMAFC proposal based on any scientific study of the work profile of this category of public servants? No. Or is it just an attempt to allocate more money? Yes. If the President, the Vice President or any of the Governors and their Deputies feel that they are experiencing any hardship, they are free to step aside. And who is talking about hardship? These are public officers who live in free houses, eat free food, drive free cars, they also enjoy free medical care, uncountable privileges, enormous goodwill, all in spite of the so-called 2001 monetisation policy of government. Indeed, the truth is that the political leadership in this country is parasitic. The man in power is a leech, sucking the blood of the state. The proposed hardship allowance by the way, does not cancel out the Security Vote which is a big tranche of money that the President and the Governors can spend as they wish. Paying these public officers an additional 50 per cent of their annual basic salary as hardship allowance makes no sense whatsoever. I have looked around. I can find only one political office holder who can claim that he is undergoing some hardship on account of his present status. And that is Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako, the Governor of Adamawa state who is having serious problems deciding who among his four wives (Binta, Halima, Zainab and Asamau) should be the First Lady of Adamawa state. The Governor has tried to resolve the matter by dividing the First Lady portfolio (an illegal office which is unknown to the Constitution) into four with each wife being granted jurisdiction over a particular state concern. The distribution is as follows - Justice Binta Nyako (First Lady in charge of Abuja Affairs) - Being a judge should have been enough work for Her Lordship (!). Dr. Halima Nyako (First Lady in charge of the Health Sector); Hajia Zainab Nyako (First Lady in charge of Political Affairs and Mobilisation) and Asamau Nana Nyako (First Lady in charge of the Home Front). But the women are not satisfied with this arrangement according to a report in The Guardian, of September 12, 2007, page 8. They are on the "war path" with each other. Women's groups in Adamawa have now organised themselves into different camps supporting this or that First Lady. A showdown is in the offing! . The Governor is distracted, confused, harassed. This problem between Nyako and his four wives is typically the kind of hardship that our political office holders go through. I sympathise with Nyako but I shall not recommend the payment of any hardship allowance to him. Rather, he needs to be told to call his wives to order. If he is busy having so much difficulty managing his bedroom, how can he possibly do the job for which he has been elected? Consider also, the proposed Constituency Allowance which is put at 250 per cent of annual basic salary for the President, the Vice President, the Governor and the Deputy Governor; and 25 per cent for Local Government Chairmen and Vice -Chairmen of Local Councils - 15 per cent. Constituency allowance is one of the most abused sub-heads in the pay package for public officials, including lawmakers. Another is the Legislative Aides allowances (for PA, SA, domestic staff). Ordinarily, political office holders are expected to serve their constituencies, set up offices and help to bring government closer to the people through projects, networking efforts and identification/communication of the people's priorities. In eight years, however, we have witnessed a situation whereby the politicians once elected turned their back on their electoral constituencies. Many of the Abuja lawmakers no longer wanted to identify with the electorate. The few who chose to remember the people did so only when they needed re-election. The Constituency in Nigeria is something that is used by the scheming political figure to serve convenient, selfish interests and not an expression of grassroots interests. I have heard politicians justify their alienation from their Constituencies on the basis that the people are too poor. When the politician tries to identify with them, he is asked to help pay school fees, contribute to the payment of rent and generally distribute money from one doorstep to the other. Could this be an excuse for the abuse of Constituency allowances? I don't think so. Besides, 250 per cent of annual basic salary as proposed is somewhat on the high side. And what special Constituency do the President and the Vice President represent in the light of the suggestion in Section 132 (4) that the whole of the federation is the President's constituency? It is perhaps not the responsibility of the RMAFC to worry about the details of governance in terms of service delivery. But rather than the endless, irritating talk about the pay package for political leaders, Nigerians are more interested in what the Yar'Adua government plans to do for them. President Umaru Yar'Adua had spoken about being a "servant-leader". His government should talk more about service and leadership rather than remuneration. In August, the RMAFC Chairman had said that the Nigerian President is the least paid in West Africa (N275,000 per month) and that the Commission's objective is to bring the salary of the President of Nigeria to be at par with that of other leaders in the West African sub-region. What is the RMAFC comparing? Figures or national economic conditions? Tukur is not telling the whole truth. Do other African Presidents eat free food, etc? He further disclosed that when the same salary package that is being proposed was presented to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he had rejected the idea. His words: "You see, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria remains the poorest paid president in the ECOWAS countries. When we consulted with the former president and we mentioned the figure for him to be at par, he said no, he doesn't (sic) want it." My advice: President Yar'Adua should also reject the proposed package. Tukur is wrong when he says: "Nigeria stands embarrassed because her leader is the least paid leader among his colleagues and yet he is one of the most important in ECOWAS". Tukur should speak for himself. More pay for the President and others is not a priority for Nigeria at this time. The constitutionally- granted powers of the RMAFC should be exercised with a sense of responsibility and greater sensitivity to current realities. And just to further show how reckless the recommendations of the RMAFC are: part-time Members of Federal bodies are to collect a sitting allowance of N500, 000 per meeting (!) and as newspapers/periodicals allowance, ministers will get N303,960 per annum, ministers of state (N293,637), special advisers (N291,431.25); and Senators (N303,960). Hamman Tukur and his team must be joking.
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