Tell Nigerians How Much You Earn; Ezekwesili Challenges Lawmakers

Former Vice-President of the World Bank (African Region),
Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesili, yesterday, dared members of the
National Assembly to publicly declare their remuneration
package, after some lawmakers described as baseless her
claim that the National Assembly’s eight-year spending of
over N1trillion is a huge drain on the economy.
Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education who was guest
speaker at a Civil Society Roundtable on “Cost of
Governance,” had proposed that the federal legislators should
serve on part-time basis to save cost and allow government
to re-channel the chunk of resources to other critical
sectors of the country, a proposal greeted with a lot of
criticisms and condemnation from some lawmakers at the
National Assembly.
In a swift reaction, Ezekwesili took an exception to some of
the criticisms that trailed her proposal, saying many of the
lawmakers chose to haul verbal assaults and threats at her
rather than addressing the issues at stake.
She therefore challenged the lawmakers to an open debate to
determine the actual pay package of legislators and ascertain
whether it had not become a burden to the economy.
Ezekwesili, in a statement released yesterday insisted that
the National Assembly was taking more than its fair share of
the “national cake” contrary to the position of some
lawmakers.
She said that her presentation at the civil society platform
was meant to draw attention to the “fundamentally
unsustainable economic structure” that made Nigeria lag
behind over the last 53 years.
“I provided eight years data on budgetary allocations or
transfers to the National Assembly. The data in question is
publicly available information from the Ministry of Finance
which reveals that the allocations to the National Assembly
known as Statutory Transfers between 2005 and 2013
were approximately N1 trillion as follows: 2005- N54.79
billion; 2006-N54.79 billion; 2007-N66.4 billion; 2008-
N114.39 billion; 2009-N158.92 billion; 2010-N150 billion,
2011-N 150 billion; 2012- N150 billion; and 2013-N150
billion.
“I also provided information available in a recent global
comparison of legislators’ remuneration across the world
recently published by the United Kingdom based The Economist
magazine. I stated that the report alleged that Nigerian federal
legislators with a basic salary of $189,500 per annum
(N30.6m) were the highest paid lawmakers in the world.
“In reaction to various versions of news media report of my
speech, a number of members of the House of
Representatives and Senators speaking as spokesmen of the
National Assembly and perhaps without the benefit of my full
speech, strangely chose to haul verbal assaults and threats
at me,” she said.
Ezekwesili argued that it would have been more dignifying if
the spokesmen of the National Assembly used the opportunity
of their reaction to offer their own data to contradict her
claims or clarify falsehood conveyed in her speech to the civil
society groups.
She noted that the issue of public finance management
remained at the core of good governance and so, too
important to be reduced to politics.
“I wish to state with absolute respect for our lawmakers and
our institution that it will be more valuable and enriching for
our democracy if instead of the abusive language of their
recent reaction, the National Assembly immediately offered me
and the rest of the Nigerian public, the opportunity of a public
hearing on their budgetary allocation and the very relevant
issue of their remuneration,” she said.