Why did it take 18 years for Nigerians to know how much the members of the National Assembly were paying to themselves? One view is that the foundation of the Assembly was built on lies. Less than a week after the Assembly was inaugurated in 1999, it was discovered that the Speaker of the House Representatives, Alhaji Salisu Buhari, not only forged his education certificates but he had also falsified his age. He claimed he had obtained a degree in Toronto. He had not. He deposed he was 30 years old, the required age to be Speaker. He was not. TheNews had printed the facts. Speaker Buhari denied and denied. But the facts caught up with him. He resigned both the Speakership and his seat. But rather than see him to jail, the National Assembly invented a legal fiction said to be alien to Nigerian jurisprudence to shield him. It was called “plea bargaining.”
For a crook to hoodwink the Nigerian nation in such a cavalier manner, to get himself into the No. 4 position of power and authority by deception, was, of course, a national disgrace. Even so, Salisu Buhari was fenced off, protected and treated more like a prince than a fraud.
The nation had barely recovered from the shock of the Speaker being a forger before it was discovered that the President of the Senate, Evan(s) Enwerem, was an ex-convict. Tell magazine reported that the man had served a jail sentence abroad for stealing. He was further accused of forgery and age falsification. The magazine reported there were two versions of his name in different documents. Enwerem denied, denied, but the facts caught up with him. Yet he was never held accountable. Indeed he only stepped down as Senate President and enjoyed the privilege of serving out his term as senator.
For 18 years the response of members of the National Assembly that it might be over-paying itself was always to deny and deny. Five years ago when Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili raised the issue, they descended on her with a venom that startled an otherwise intrepid lady. If you say I am wrong, what is the truth?She politely asked. They treated her with disdain. She asked for a public forum to discuss the issue, she was roundly ignored. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was less polite. He declared the members of the National Assembly to be nothing but unarmed robbers. He also used some more colourful epithets. The chief had noted that “there should be a showdown between what is right and what is wrong. After the showdown, what is right will definitely prevail and the criminals will be put to shame.” On the constituency projects the lawmakers craved, Obasanjo stated that they were “illegal, criminal and wrapped in corruption.” In the end, the government had no balls to have a showdown with corrupt legislators. The members then rallied as usual, drowned out the voice of the elder statesman with abuses and insults. That was before Kaduna’s Governor Nasir el-Rufai stirred the hornet’s nest by correctly observing that the National Assembly was not only indifferent to the fight against corruption but was indeed sabotaging it while paying themselves stupendous emoluments. House Speaker, Dr. Yakubu Dogara, showed the Nigerian Press what he said were his pay slips showing that his take home pay was under N350,000 per month. Can truth ever come out of the National Assembly?
The cult-like secrecy to conceal the earnings of members was impregnable, from which it became apparent that the character of the Assembly had changed into that of an oligarchy. The only difference is that all their money of the oligarchs was not made in business but taken from public treasury. That was before Prof. Itse Sagay, the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) announced in a public lecture the incredible, oversized earnings of members of the National Assembly. Senators, he said, received N29.5 million per month and a total of N3.2 billion a year. The difference between the earnings in the Senate and the House is generally about five per cent. Sagay received the same treatment as the others before him. They reported him to President Buhari apparently recommending his sack.
Now it must be realized that before Senator Shehu Sani revealed to TheNews the figures – N13.5 million per month running expenses; N700,000 salary per month; N200 million yearly constituency project; the former Chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the House, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who blew the whistle on the 2016 “budget padding” had spoken ominously of the “running expenses” as the opium on which members of the National Assembly are addicted, and for which they would do anything to hide from Nigerians under all circumstances. When Jibrin called for the resignation of the leadership of the House, he had many supporters, at least nearly 200 members thought that Dogara and his clique should step down. The House’s Integrity Group Caucus was definite about the need to support Jibrin. Support for Jibrin, however, evaporated when the Speaker waved the “running expenses” bugaboo. The Speaker was brutally direct, “I won’t go down alone if you allow these issues to be investigated (as Jibrin was demanding). The running cost issue would also have to come up,” he threatened. It put the fear of God into all the members. In a mafia-like style, they all closed ranks and ousted Jibrin, sending him on suspension for 18 months.
In 2016, Jibrin took pains to explain why members who had earlier supported him suddenly developed cold feet, and it was because representatives help themselves to billions of naira under the guise of ‘running costs.’ Jibrin confessed, “I took running cost. Members collect between N10 million and N20 million every month since I came into the National Assembly till date.To make matters worse, there is a kind of arrangement that ensures that the cumulative of that amount is paid to you upfront. That is why you see someone come into the National Assembly with nothing, but after swearing-in, he is already buying a car of N20 million.”
“There is an (under the table) arrangement. For instance, if what you take is N20 million per month, that brings it to about N900 billion in four years. There is an arrangement that ensures you could get even up to half of that money instantly. It is such a mess.”
According to Jibrin, the leadership of the House, at a meeting, had warned members that many heads could roll if the issue of running costs is revealed.He said: “So, he (Speaker) just said it straight. ‘I won’t go down alone. If you allow these issues to be investigated, of course, we have to open up the running cost issue’. From that meeting, people started backtracking.Everybody was ready for a showdown. But that night, he struck. He put the fear of running cost in the hearts of lawmakers because the running cost issue will send hundreds of members to jail directly. You don’t need to investigate it. It’s a fraud. It’s a huge and massive fraud and I have never pretended or avoided saying it,” Jibrin said.
In true democracies, Senator Sani and Representative Jibrin would be drafted to run for president. A mendacious parliament corrupts everything.