Abstract:
For too long this nation had been at the receiving end of a lecherous National Assembly whose primary function, it would seem is to skim off the nation either by padding budgets or harassing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and ministry officials into parting with substantial parts of their annual budgets in bribes to ger allocated to them billions of naira as constituency projects, which projects are nothing more than a mirage at the end of the day. Even more scandalous is the fact that members of the National Assembly allocate far salaries and allowances to themselves. This paper critically examines this and finds out that there is a huge gap between what is approved and what National Assembly members take as salaries and allowances. The paper also evaluates this scam and find our that, on paper it appears as if they are earning the official salaries while in realm- their earnings have been padded with bloated and irregular quarterly allowance disguised as ‘’running cost”. The paper concludes that the pay of members of the National Assembly accounts for 25 percent of the total recurrent overhead budget of the Federal Government. This huge pay is damaging to the overall health of the nation’s economy. That the lure of the incredible legitimate financial reward and the illicit financial exploits have turned the political climate in Nigeria almost to an exclusive reserve of the greedy, selfish, heartless and corrupt desperados. The paper recommends thar it is time we undertake a comprehensive review downward of the huge pay of members of the legislature to bring it in line with the best practices in other countries. Thar politics should never be the cheapest platform to wealth and power but should be an avenue to offer genuine services to the people.
