Obasanjo says lawmakers fixing their salaries is fraudulent
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has reiterated it is unconstitutional and immoral for lawmakers to fix their own salaries and allowances, in a corrupt system that enables them to hijack the responsibility of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
Senators and House of Representatives members are speculated to earn any amount from N1 million per month apart from allowances that cover accommodation, furniture, wardrobe, newspapers, among others.
There have also been reports that a retiring Senator gets at least N7 million in severance package.
But all of that is conjecture, as the lawmakers have conspired since the Obasanjo years in Aso Rock (1999-2007) to shield their salaries from the public.
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Obasanjo’s failure to correct the anomaly
Obasanjo himself failed to correct the anomaly of lawmakers robbing the treasury when he was President, even when it is well reported that Nigerian legislators earn the highest pay among all democracies across the world, including the United States.
Yet, by law, all a Senator or Rep has to do is put in 180 days’ work a year to collect his or her jumbo pay and allowances.
Obasanjo when President could have sued the legislators and got a court order forcing them to stop fixing their emoluments.
Regardless, he bared his mind on Monday in a speech he delivered at the 60th anniversary of Afe Babalola’s call to the Bar held in Ado Ekiti, per reporting by Vanguard.
Those who should uphold the Constitution undermine it
Obasanjo expressed concern that those who should uphold the Constitution are “the ones who undermine it.”
Salary allocation for elected officials is the responsibility of the RMAFC the lawmakers bypassed to fix salaries for themselves.
Paragraph 32(a-e) of Part I to the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) mandates the RMAFC to, among other functions, determine the remuneration appropriate for political officeholders, including legislators.
“The point in Nigeria, which I have seen and which I can attest to is, most of the people who are supposed to be operationalising or managing and seeing the Constitution and democracy move forward, they are actually the ones who undermine the Constitution,” Obasanjo lamented.
“All elected people, by our Constitution, their emolument is supposed to be fixed by the revenue mobilisation commission, but our lawmakers set that aside and they make laws and put any emolument for themselves.
“Even if that is constitutional, it is not moral and, of course, it is neither constitutional nor moral.”
Obasanjo moaned that many other aspects of the Constitution, such as the Federal Character, are “absolutely ignored,” as the Federal Character Commission (FCC) hardly carries out its functions.
He warned that when the Constitution is “continually breached like that,” Nigeria’s democracy becomes one where anything goes.
He commended Babalola for his contributions to the development of the country, saying he has made things he met in life better than he met them.
“You have met this world at a point, you have met your community at a point, you have met your family at a point and what you have done is that what you have met, you have made it better than what you have found.”