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Despite the festering leadership
crisis rocking the National
Assembly, the legislative arm of
Nigeria’s central government, a
Port Harcourt lawyer, Chuks
Lester Uguru, is heading to court
over the vexed issue of the
lawmakers jumbo pay.
AkanimoReports gathered on
Monday in Port Harcourt, the
Rivers State capital in Southern
Nigeria, that Uguru has already
served the Chair of the National
Assembly and Senate President,
Bukola Saraki, notice of his intent
on the controversial matter.
In a letter dated June 30, 2015 to
the senate president, the lawyer
said he knows that the legislators
are not unaware of the gallimaufry
of problems besetting their
country.
”However let me take the liberty
of setting out here even though in a
condensed form a chronicle of the
pains of Nigerians for more than a
decade”, he said.
According to him, ”there is no gain
saying the fact that our economy
currently is on
life support. At the last check, the
Naira was exchanging at the rate of
about N198 to a Dollar.
Social services have suffered
shipwreck as all Institutions that
provide the services have been
comatose owing to lack of funds.
”Unemployment figures
particularly that of the youths have
reached such scandalous
and embarrassing proportions. The
consequence of this is that we are
now exposed to all forms of
criminal activities with kidnapping
and armed robbery almost
becoming a pastime for the
unemployed.
”All kinds of social vices now
pervade our land. Fathers who
cannot meet the expense of their
children have now lost parental
authority over them resulting in the
delinquent behavior of the
children. Regrettably the girls have
been forced into prostitution with
the attendant sexually transmitted
diseases while the boys have taken
to cultism and other vices.
”Our health care services are in
shambles. Poor citizens of this
country who are unfortunate to
suffer from such ailments as
cancer, renal disorders, HIV etc are
marooned in ill-equipped hospitals
where they beg for alms until they
relocate to
eternity.
”Owing to the absence of well-
equipped and affordable hospitals
Nigerians have resorted to drinking
concoctions prepared with illicit gin
‘ogogoro’ in the name of herbal
treatment and are now dying in
their numbers as in the recent case
of Rivers State. Those who can
afford it jet out to India only to
return in body bags.
Maternal and infant mortality rates
have blossomed”.
Continuing, Uguru said in the letter,
”the power situation is at its lowest
ebb with the giant of Africa
generating and distributing less
than 2000 mega watts of electricity
to over 170 million citizens in the
21st century.
”Nigerian workers earn the miserly
sum of N18, 000.00 per month as
their pay and even at that some
States owe their workers’ salaries
for up to six months or more.
Nigerians who are employed by
private employers earn as little as
N5, 000.00 per month.
A recent world bank report has it
that the poor of Nigeria lives on less
than one dollar a day.
”In global reckoning the giant of
Africa has become a recluse nation
notorious for the importation of
keke Napep and second hand goods
whereas South Korea which in 1974
had no car now exports all kinds of
exotic cars and high profile and
heavy duty construction
equipments with Nigeria being
one of their receptacles. Indians,
Lebanese, Egyptians etc have
bought up our mismanaged and
comatose industries such
as textiles and steel.
”In recent times we now have
millions of Nigerians who have
acquired the status of internally
displaced persons (IDPs) who are
scattered in refugee camps without
shelter, nutrition or medical care.
Yet over the years beginning from
1999, Nigerians have watched in
horror as our elected leaders and
representatives have brazenly
pillaged our God given
commonwealth. We have watched
elected leaders revel in squander
mania and engage in gross waste
and mismanagement of our
National resources”.
The rest of the letter to the senate
president which was also copied to
the Permanent Secretary, Federal
Ministry of Justice went thus:
‘Nigerians suffered in silence in the
period when the seventh Assembly
held sway. That
Assembly was characterized with
impunity, secrecy and cupidity.
Therefore, when their
tenure fizzled out, and the eight
Assembly was ushered in we
heaved a sigh of relief believing
that the evil days were over.
”We believed that the era of
progressives when we shall be
rescued from man-made purgatory
we had been consigned has come.
Shockingly, unbelievably and to the
discomfiture of Nigerians we are
told that less than a fortnight into
office our distinguished and
Honourable Legislators are going to
receive N9.00 billion as
wardrobe allowance.
”It is inconceivable that less than
two weeks into the inauguration of
the 8th Assembly, members are
going to receive N9 Billion as
wardrobe allowance in a country
where several states workers are
owed their paltry salaries for up to
six months. Instead of receiving
bread from the eight
Assembly, we are receiving stone.
”I am aware that the National
Assembly particularly the Senate
has as members ex-governors who
cannot be described as poor
by any stretch of imagination. It is
inconceivable that of the legion of
problems confronting our dear
nation now, the first preoccupation
of the distinguished and
honourable members is to
withdraw
the sum of N9.00 billion from the
lean treasury for members’
wardrobe allowance.
”Permit me to observe that it is
indeed unethical and immoral for
elected representatives of the
citizens to pocket N9Billion while
the ordinary Nigerian worker
cannot receive his meager pittance
of N18,000. 00.
”The information in the public
domain is that Nigerian Legislators
of the National
Assembly stock are the highest paid
in the world. Reports have it that a
Nigerian Senator takes home about
N29, 000,000.00
per month whiles his counterpart
in the House of Representatives
takes home about N27, 000,000.00.
”A recent survey puts the earning
of a Nigerian Lawmaker at over
$2,000,000.00 per annum. Neither
the National Assembly nor the
Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission have come
out to deny this or tell Nigerians the
exact remuneration that the
members receive. It is therefore
safe to work with the information
we have.
”Permit me at this juncture to recall
the immortal words of the famous
French leader and Second World
War veteran,
General Charles De Gaulle that:
“Politics, when it is an art and a
service, not an exploitation, is about
acting for an ideal through
realities.”
”Sir, Nigeria is a country operating
under constitutional democracy. All
authorities in
Nigeria including the National
Assembly derive their authority
and impetus from the 1999
Constitution which is the supreme
organic law of our legal system.
”I have examined the said
constitution with the microscopic
thoroughness of a scientist
searching for an invisible germ and
I find no provision enabling the
members of the National Assembly
to earn extra-large pay while the
rest of us perish in the wilderness
of lack. If anything the constitution
provides otherwise. A few
examples will suffice.
”Section 4(2) of the constitution
provides that the National
Assembly shall have power to make
laws for the peace, order
and good government of the
Federation or any part thereof……
The emphasis of course is on good
government.
”Let me also refer you to Chapter
11 of the Constitution which
contains the Fundamental
Objectives and Directive Principles
of State Policy. Sections 14(1) and
14(2) a & b is to the following effect:
1. The Federal Republic of Nigeria
shall be a state based on the
principles of democracy and social
justice.
2. Sovereignty belongs to the
people of Nigeria from whom
government through this
constitution derives all its powers
and authority.
3. The security and welfare of the
people shall be the primary
purpose of government.
By the same token, sections 17(1)
and 17(2) a & b is to the following
effect:
1. The State social order is founded
on ideals of freedom, Equity and
Justice.
2. Every citizen hall have equality
of rights, obligation and
opportunities before the law
3. Governmental actions shall be
humane; ”With all due deference
sir, it will appear that the actions of
the National Assembly on the issue
of the remuneration of
members negate or detract from all
the noble principles enshrined in
the provisions above.
”I am aware that by section 70 of
the Constitution, a member of the
National Assembly shall receive
such salary and other allowances as
the Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission may
determine. Some members of the
National Assembly have sought to
blame this profligacy of the
Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission.
”Firstly, I do not want to believe
that the Revenue Mobilization
Allocation and Fiscal Commission
have determined that the members
of the National Assembly should
earn the gargantuan amount of
money in issue as their salaries.
”Secondly, even if it was so, any
amount determined by the
Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission as salary
must first be passed into law by the
National Assembly before it
becomes legal.
The inescapable conclusion
therefore will be that it is the
members of the National Assembly
that have determined their own
remuneration. Reasonable men will
judge me guilty if I gleefully receive
a car gift from my son which I know
he cannot afford only to turn
around and blame my son
when questions are asked.
”Sir, we cannot deny the fact that
things have gone abysmally wrong
in our dear country. The problems
as we see it are the
handiwork of greedy and selfish
politicians who have appropriated
the abundant heritage that the
almighty God has generously
bestowed on our country for the
benefit of every Nigerian. But the
time has come to stop the drift.
”Mr. Senate President, even
without having the privilege of
making your acquaintance I have
followed up your antecedents as a
politician and I have no doubt that
you have
the will, doggedness and sagacity to
make a difference. God has placed
you in a place of responsibility in a
country that has been serially
abused and traumatized by forces
of stagnation and retrogression.
Posterity will hold you in high
esteem if you justify the confidence
reposed in you by man and by God
as the Senate President.
”But like Charles Kingsley said in his
book, The Heroes, “all strength and
virtue come
from God but when men misuse
there fair gifts they fall pitifully”. I
pray that this will not be your
testimony. ”It will appear that Adolf
Hitler was right when he said “How
fortunate for governments that the
people they administer do not
think”.
”Nigerians not thinking was in the
past.
We are now ready to take our
collective destiny into our hands. I
am constrained by the events in
Nigeria to agree entirely with
General De Gaulle when he said “I
have come to the conclusion that
politics are too serious a matter to
be left to the politicians”. The time
has come for all patriotic Nigerians
to brace up and rescue our country
from the stranglehold of predators
whoever they may be. Let it start
under your watch.
”The purpose of this letter is to
demand and I hereby demand as a
matter of grave urgency that the
distinguished and honourable
members of the National Assembly
do the needful by rejecting the
gargantuan salaries and directing
the Revenue Mobilization Allocation
and Fiscal Commission to determine
fair and reasonable salaries which
shall be commensurate with the
economic realities
of the time. In determining what is
fair and reasonable let them
consider that the minimum wage is
N18, 000.00 per month
and that Nigerian debt profile is
$63Billion.
”TAKE NOTICE that if I do not
receive assurance that something
radically positive will be done to
correct this anomaly of Jumbo pay
for members of the National
Assembly within a reasonable time
of the receipt of this letter, I shall
explore and
exploit every legal means to
challenge the propriety and legality
of same. ”Be rest assured that I
shall start by invoking the
firepower of the Courts against the
membership of the National
Assembly.
Let me repeat that a situation
where our elected representatives
live in opulence
from our commonwealth while the
rest of us suffer in pain and penury
constitute a desperate social
malady and a desperate
malady requires desperate
solution”.
www.myglobalscoop.com/2015/07/lawyer-writes-open-letter-to-saraki-dares-national-assembly-on-jumbo-pay.html

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i will when i finish reading

stc
....up nepa

and i hope the letter gets to the person intended...