Nigerians Are Poor, Our Lawmakers Are Highest Paid Globally: See The Facts

The jumbo salary being paid Nigerian legislators, which ranked the highest in the world, according to a new study, has attracted sharp criticisms from across the country, including from economists and lawyers.

“This democracy is satanic. We have to review this democracy. The cost of maintaining the lawmakers is outrageous. What they are taking is too much,” said Nigerian professor

This is even as the minimum wage in Nigeria is among the very least in the world. The standard of living for the average Nigerian is getting worse, but all those holding political positions are living large...

A report by The Economist revealed that Nigerian federal legislators with a basic salary of $189,500 (N30.6m) per annum were the highest paid lawmakers in the world.

Quoting data from the International Monetary Fund and The Economist magazine of London, the study looked at the lawmakers’ basic salary as a ratio of the Gross Domestic Product per person across countries of the world.

According to the report, the basic salary (which excludes allowances) of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person of $1,600.

The $189,500 earned annually by each Nigerian legislator is even 52 percent higher than what legislators in Kenya, who are the second highest paid in the world, earned.

An Associate Professor of Economics at the Ekiti State University, Dr. Abel Awe, said the lawmakers’ jumbo salary was indicative of the huge gap between the poor and the rich as well as between the ruler and the ruled.

He said it is unfortunate that Nigeria is running the costliest democracy in the world.

“This is part of the reason why 70 per cent of the nation’s budget is allocated to re-current expenditure. We are using a huge chunk of the nation’s resources to service just less than 1,000 people in a country of over 160 million people.

“We are running the costliest democracy in the world. We can’t develop this way when we spend huge money to service a few people. How will you get money for productive activities to expand the economy? An average Nigerian cannot access good medical care, good roads and other basic things of life when the legislators are smiling to the bank," he said.

An economist, Mr. Henry Boyo, said the study had shown clearly that the cost of governance in Nigeria is very high.

Boyo, who noted that the cost of governance was predicated on the provisions of the Constitution, said it was high time Nigerians cried against the bloated cost of governance.

He said, “Our legislators’ actions or salaries are actually accommodated by the Constitution. In the past, we had less money and we had enough as a country. People are asking for a change of Constitution.

“It is unfortunate that it is the people who will do it that are the ones in charge. The legislators will not vote against themselves.”

The Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch, Mr. Monday Ubani, said the legislators had created “a big hole” in the nation’s treasury.

Ubani said, “This is a fact already and well known to Nigerians and the world. It is not a new story. What is baffling is that their legislative output is not commensurate to the amount of salaries and allowances they are earning.

“Take for instance, the ongoing constitution amendment. Their propositions and submissions on almost all the important clauses are at variance with that of the sovereign Nigerians. Both Houses have created a big hole on our national treasury.”

On his part, human rights lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, lamented the wide disparity between the earnings of the citizens and their legislators, who according to him, are the idlest, yet earn the most in the world.

“We are running a parody of democracy in this country. It is a democracy for the rich. The people are getting poorer for building a nation, while the politicians are getting richer for doing nothing. Those who are not creating wealth in the country are sitting on the wealth of the people, and those who are creating the wealth, the workers, are being paid peanuts.

“Can you imagine there is still a raging and scandalous debate among some governors on whether or not to pay N18,000 minimum wage? Yet we are in a nation where the idlest legislators are being paid the highest in the world.”