Recently, the House of Representatives came under severe criticism over plans to import 400 2020 model of Toyota Camry cars.
The cars are to be distributed to the 360 members of the House, as well as some top officials of the National Assembly, as official cars.
The lawmakers at an executive session, early last month, reportedly rejected Nigerian brands or locally assembled vehicles, while opting for the latest model of Toyota Camry.
Miffed by the lawmakers decision, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and other concerned Nigerians filed a suit before a Federal High Court in Abuja, praying the court to restrain the House from going ahead with the proposed transaction.
According to them, it is not right for the Green Chamber to be proposing to buy exotic cars, at the time the populace is being asked to tighten their belts and patronize locally made goods.
However, in its reaction, the House through the chairman of its Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Benjamin Kalu, said the anger of Nigerians over the planned importation of the car was misplaced.
Hear him: “I posit that our outrage as Nigerians because legislators approved Toyota Camry cars for themselves is misplaced and better directed at the over 400 parastatals of the executive. I would also go further as to say that considering the state of Nigerian roads (which the executive is responsible for fixing by the way) SUVs and not saloon cars or Camry, should be approved for use by legislators in their official duties.
“The argument that overseas, the legislative arm is less expensive is weak because a comparative analysis shows that except in a few isolated and extreme cases, the entitlement of legislators in Nigeria is at par or even less than those of their colleagues overseas.
“For the sake of clarity, in standard parliamentary practice, legislators have two entitlements in terms of remuneration- their basic salary for personal use, and allowances for use in running their offices, research, stakeholder engagements, trainings, trips, constituency offices, constituency outreaches, security and other costs attendant to performing their lawmaking, representative and oversight duties.
“For example, in the United States, the current base salary for Senators and Representatives is $174,000 per year amounting to about N5.2m per month. Outside this, each legislator is allowed a Member’s Representational Allowance (MRA) of up to $1,268,520 (N456.6m) which is an allowance of about N38m per month.
“This is humongous compared to the pittance salaries and allowances of Nigerian legislators; and is particularly discouraging to representatives who choose not to operate only in Abuja to the neglect of their constituents back home.”
Methinks, they completely missed the point here. The issue is not whether or not lawmakers should get official cars.
One is not concerned about the fact that lawmakers are going to be spending a whopping sum to acquire the 2020 model of Toyota Camry as official cars. Rather one is only alarmed that these cars are going to be imported, when the Green Chamber could have easily procured them from own Innoson Motors or at least have them assembled locally.
Imagine the value of procuring 400 vehicles from Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing or from any of the local assembly plants would add to the economy.
Innoson motors or vehicles assembled locally may not be the best for our honourable members, but the fact that procuring their cars locally will add value to the economy, makes it the more desirable.
It defiles logic for the the government to be asking Nigerians to patronise made in Nigeria goods and championing campaigns for local content, only to turn round and do the exact opposite.
Instead of trying to make comparison between the type of cars the House and members of the executive arm use, the lawmakers, as representatives of the people, ought to be leading by example in patronising any car assembly plants here.
Rather than making needless comparison with the executive over whose car is bigger, one would have expected that the House should have been championing the use of made in Nigeria goods by public officials, as a government policy.
They should have borrowed a leaf from the good example laid by business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who decided to patronise Anambra Motor Company ( ANAMCO) by buying over 300 trucks from the company, thereby giving it a lifeline.
It is not in doubt, that the perception of the public about the lawmakers is very poor. Ironically, the House, most times, believe that it is unduly criticised by the members of the public.
But it fails to admit that, one way or the other, the parliament keeps doing things that portray it as insensitive to the feeling of Nigerians or completely detached from the every day challenges confronting the people.
A fortnight ago, the House, as part of its image laundering project, unveiled the Green Chamber magazine to tell its story. The magazine is intended to tell the story of the Green Chamber, because it believes that the public is not adequately informed about its activities.
But the truth the House and by extension the National Assembly fails to admit is that its poor perception by Nigerians is self inflicted.
Achieving a positive public image for the federal legislature is possible. But the change must start from the parliament.
For starters, there must be a determined effort to win public trust. One way of attaining this is for the parliament to open up to the people. There must be full disclosure on the total emolument of the National Assembly members. What is the total pay of a federal lawmaker? The people need to know.
The parliament cannot be seeking for public support and understanding, while its financial dealings are shrouded in secrecy.
The House spokesman, as part of his response to SERAP’s opposition to the planned importation of utility cars for lawmakers, said members of the National Assembly earn “pittance” compared to the “humongous” emoluments of their American counterparts. Unfortunately, he failed to lay bare what the federal lawmakers get.
If he has done that, perhaps, it will help to change the perception of the public about the lawmakers.
Maybe, too, that would have made the public understand why they deserve more than the 2020 model of Toyota Camry that they intend to acquire as official cars.