The Sun News On-line

Would you believe that a nation that budgets N2.6tr for a fiscal year spends at least half of that amount to service public office holders or political appointees whose benefit to the economy and society is still not clear.

Saturday Sun delved into the records to uncover the exact figures the officers earn, especially after the recent increase in wages of the president, his deputy and National Assembly members.

The cost of running Nigeria through the payment and settlement of officers makes it clear why projects and facilities remain neglected.

Expensive ‘democracy’
A good instance on how expensive it is to run Nigeria was an observation Saturday Sun made in Bayelsa State over two years ago. That was when the Vice President was the governor of that state. It was on about the second Sunday of July that year during a visit to the state that a certain Claver Kisikpo, then member of the House of Representatives for Ogbia Federal Constituency handed out 20 motorcycles, four sewing machines, and one sawing (dolmar) machine to his constituents. That is where the Vice President comes from.

He was, therefore, invited to be the special guest to hand over the items. But one was careful enough to count 19 vehicles in the governor’s entourage with at least three persons in one. These cars were fuelled, the occupants paid for the trip, and at last the cost of funding the trip of the governor’s team outweighed the cost of the items Kisikpo gave out which brought the team.

Increasing the load
The recent pronouncement by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to jerk up the salaries of political office holders has unfolded another reason Nigeria has been in motion without movement for almost half a century of independence.

In a nation now ravaged by hunger, disease, broken-down infrastructure, power failure, an economy that is on a tailspin and a terrible education sector, the cost of maintaining political office holders keeps rising geometrically especially with a bloated and burgeoning bureaucracy.
The 2008 budget of the Federal Government is N2.6tr, but N1.3tr is to be spent on political office holders’ salaries.

Last August, the RMAFC increased by over 100 per cent the basic salaries of legislators in the three tiers of government to fall in line with that of the executive arm and backdated it to last year.
This more is considered incredible in a country that falls below the world’s poverty line and where the minimum wage of the ordinary worker is N7,500. The United Nations Human Development Report (UNHDR) published for 2007/2008 confirms greater populations of Nigeria live in abject poverty. The current data disclose that 92.4 per cent of Nigerians live on $2 per day while 70.8 per cent live on $1.
But the RMAFC pay rise for the privileged was said to be routine in line with the level of inflation in the economy.

Not a big deal
A document on recommendation packages by the RMAFC for political, public and judicial office holders in Nigeria stated that the review was a function of changes in the basic fundamentals of the Nigeria economy, external reserves, Gross Domestic Products, growth rate, rate of inflation and the need for a living image by the new increase.

In this vein, the basic salary of a senator has increased from N993,697 to N2,484,245 while his counterpart in the House of Representatives had his jerked from N794,084 to N1,985,213.
Also increased are the benefits and allowances, which are between 45 and 200 per cent of their basic and annual salaries. Others allowances are vehicle maintenance, which was increased from 30 to 75 per cent; entertainment, from 10 to 30 per cent; utility, from 20 to 30 per cent. Also increased are personal assistant, 25 per cent; wardrobe, 25 per cent; domestic staff, 15 per cent; recess allowance, 10 per cent; newspaper, 15 per cent. Constituency and furniture allowances all went up by 300 per cent once in tenure; motor vehicle loan is 400 per cent repayable in six years.

Legislative extortion
From the basic salaries and their allowances, it costs the nation, on the conservative side, N28,568,965 to take care of a senator and N22,829,950 for a House of Representatives member annually. However, the lawmakers, who most Nigerians have come to regard as indolent fat cats and lotus-eaters, have other sources from which they take care of themselves that at the end, each of them would end up going home with between N50m and N100m annually.

N593bn for your councillors
For the third tier of government, it costs N593bn to take care of the chairmen and councillors in the 774 councils yearly.

Before the upward review, the annual basic salaries and allowances of elected council officials last February was N343b.
There are about 11,788 executive and legislative officers in the 774 local government areas in the country.

According to RMAFC document, the total annual salary of the executive arm of the councils is about N250bn and that of the legislature stands at about N343bn.

With the review, a local government area chairman’s annual basic salary is now N982,312. His deputy’s pay is N853.056. The chairman is entitled to 100 per cent of his annual basic salary for accommodation and 400 per cent of his basic salary as car loan while 300 per cent of the annual basic salary as furniture allowance. Others are 30 per cent of annual basic salary for utility bills and 75 per cent for domestic staff.

A councillor takes home a basic salary of N950.095. The legislative leader and his deputy in a local government council earn annual basic salary of N1m and N980, 095.
This is outside what the local government chairmen earmark as security votes. The security vote of some council chairmen is more than N5m a month. The councillors in some councils connive with the chairmen to approve high security votes because they have some cuts from it.

Ministers
There are 28 ministries with 42 ministers. Each minister earns an annual basic salary of N2.026m, which is at par with that of the Chief of Staff to the President, Secretary to the Federal Government, Head of Service, Chairman of Commission. The review also saw the President and Vice President earning N3,515m and N3.032m respectively.

The federal executive officers earn a total of N8,604,590,680 in salaries alone. Their allowances calculated alongside the basic salary brings the cost of keeping them in office to N98.3b representing over 1000 per cent increase.

In the team of the president, the deputy and their wives are 70 political appointees who are one form of special assistant, secretary to the special assistant and senior special assistants. Earlier last year the FG had announced that no political appointees should earn less than N300,000 per month. That gives an idea of at least N3.6m statutory expenses, excluding allowances that. For 70 officers, it is at least N252 million that goes into retaining their services.

NASS, states and Assemblies
The 469 federal legislators cost the country N66.4b annually to take care of. For the 36 state governments, there are at least 2,664 officials in the executive arm. Also, there are 1,152 state Houses of Assembly members. They all receive a salary totalling N36b annually,
Every increase in the overheads of the political office holders brings down the amount set aside for capital projects.

In 1998, pay roll and overheads of political office holders was N124b and by 2002, it jumped to N493. The same year, capital projects came down from 63 per cent to 32 per cent.
It is estimated that the salary review would cost the Federal Government N1736, state governments, N360b and local governments, N5936n.

Labouring for appointees
Recently, the Federal Government said it has spent N862b in education in the last eight years. When this is placed side by side with what is will take to pay the political officers in local governments areas, the reason why the education sector is in comatose becomes clearer.
Going by the figures from the RMAFC, between 1999 and 2007, not less than N5tr has been spent on political office holders in the three tiers of government.