Below Femi Falana squarely blames "weak" Yar Adua and Jonathan for how the lawmakers are allowed to fleece Nigeria unchecked . This is why I keep saying that Jonathan is "more of the same". He may actually even be worse than Yar Adua because his greater desperation means he will always be appeasing 'devils' to the detriment of Nigeria. It really is a very simple choice for Nigerians. If we do not gain a brave , resolute and principled man as President next year we can all forget improved healthcare, power supply, infrastructure , etc . It will be "more of the same" under GEJ or Atiku. Falana has challenged the jumbo pay of the lawmakers in Court. Let us note that , under GEJ and Atiku, the likes of Falana will never get the chance to assist badly needed reforms because doing deals with corrupt and influential lawmakers , like David Mark, to win elective office  , is what the PDP is about. I have cut and pasted relevant sections but I suggest reading the full article.

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101230425646

Lawmakers’ activities are informed by selfish interest – Falana

How would you rate the present crop of lawmakers vis-a-vis the allowances they earn?

The type of lawmakers we have is a wakeup call for Nigerians, the elite inclusive. Nigerians must take the argument beyond condemning the National Assembly, this is a wake up call to ensure that our legislative houses are peopled by those who are comfortable, who want to render service to the people, not those who want to go there to make money. What do you expect from people who have nothing before tasting power? They take advantage of the position and do not serve the society. I remember that one of the present crop of lawmakers was to be given one of the highest national awards in the country. In crafting a curriculum vitae for him, it was discovered that he had never worked anywhere else before going to the National Assembly. A line was then inserted that he once worked with his father‘s company, meanwhile, his father never had a company.



So, who is to be blamed for the lawmakers’ jumbo pay, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission or the lawmakers themselves?



[b]By virtue of Section 81 of the constitution, the President shall cause to be prepared and lay before the National Assembly the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the country for the following year by way of an appropriation bill. Contrary to the provision of the constitution, the National Assembly in the course of debating the Appropriation Bill introduces and inserts items of expenditure that don‘t necessarily reflect the revenue of the country and thereby rewrites the budget. Through that exercise, a number of allowances, not approved by RMAFC are smuggled in and passed by both chambers of the National Assembly. Between 1999 and 2003, former president Olusegun Obasanjo constantly clashed with NASS over the manipulation of appropriation bills and on many occasions refused to assent to such bills. But NASS bid its time and has since 2007 exploited the weakness of the person of late President Umaru Yar‘Adua and President Goodluck Jonathan to have such illegal appropriation bills passed into law and assented to by the President.



Under the constitution, the National Assembly in line with the tenets of separation of powers is required to ensure that the Executive does not go out of its way to prepare a budget that the revenue of the country can‘t meet, but now NASS rewrites budgets and passes it. The situation has reached a dangerous level whereby our lawmakers make a mockery of budgeting for the country. I was flabbergasted when the head of a government department told me that whereas N4.4bn was proposed for his agency, the figure had jumped to N36.4bn when the appropriation bill was passed into law.[/b]



Another area where NASS wastes money is the area of investigation or probe into allegations of corruption. Under Section 5 of the constitution, it is the duty of the Auditor-General of the Federation to audit accounts, including periodic checks on all government agencies and submit a report to the National Assembly for necessary attention. Security agencies are also empowered to investigate all cases of fraud, corruption and financial crimes and prosecute those indicted. Under the pretext of exercising its oversight function, NASS has usurped the constitutional functions of the auditor-general and statutory functions of the police and anti-graft agencies by auditing accounts of government agencies and investigation cases of corruption at enormous cost to the nation. Interestingly, after NASS investigates, its report is sent to anti-graft agencies for prosecution of those who may have been indicted. Because the lawmakers are not equipped for serious investigation of fraud and corruption-related offences. And in this case, anti-graft agencies usually commence investigation afresh. When NASS usurps the power of the auditor-general, several billions of naira are lost at the end of the year to violations of the constitution. The lawmakers‘ power to investigate is subject to other provisions of the constitution.



Nigeria also pays the highest estacode to its officials in the whole world. If you travel to any part of the world on any day, you will find our legislators and other public officials roaming around. They abandon their work to shop around. On a daily basis, you have a record of absenteeism.



Can aggrieved Nigerians sue the lawmakers for collecting the jumbo pay in spite of the prevailing poverty in the country?



I have challenged the lawmakers‘ jumbo pay in court. The case is before the Federal High Court, in Abuja and hearing comes up on January 20, 2011. I want the court to declare that the National Assembly has no powers to fix salaries while all excesses collected by the lawmakers so far, should be forfeited to the state.

Em, em, old story.

GEJ is weak.Next,

[size=14pt]To be in the Nigerian House is like winning a lottery ticket. A prudent and modest Assembly man after 4 yearS as a reps or senator should be worth a conservative $1 million dollars and to think some of those law makers would go straight from the four corners of our Universities without any experience whatsoever to this doyen of Super-Earners beats one’s imagination.

This callous regime of handing a lottery ticket to 500 individual’s year in year out is not sustainable and must be stopped, no country in the world would go down this road of un-wanton and blatant wastage of her resources.[/size]  

Abagworo:

Em, em, old story.

GEJ is weak.Next,

PHD Holder in " Suffering and Smiling"

Falana has just repeated what some of us hv been saying here on NL but some sycophants here will nvr see nor admit dat our president is nt only week but is also a part of d thieving bunch. There is nothing more to say since d obvious has been stated and glaring 4all 2see. Its jst a pity dat we keep recycling knwn thieves as leaders.

yardua was weak but jonathan is a complete puppet;who was being tossed up and down by everybody simply because of his greediness to be president by all means.
The same way the governors manipulated him into squandering the excess crude account in just few months after being made president.he's weak and unfit.honestly,i give credit to OBJ for his toughness over the legislature.

Abagworo:

Em, em, old story.

GEJ is weak.Next,

This is not only about Jonathan being weak. It is more about how he is a direct cause of the administrative wastage and corruption that is sinking Nigeria. Jonathan's style is all about proflicacy allied with a desperation to alway appease and "settle" the vampires who should be fought to a standstill if Nigeria is to make meaningful progress. When his clueless spending then deplete our coffers , despite high oil prices , he runs to obtain foreign loan virtually all neutral economists have condemned !!!

This is why many of us argue that GEJ is "dead on arrival" and "more of the same" with absolutely nothing to offer. Nigeria will go nowhere with his type because he is another opportunist , like Yar Adua, who never sought power yet gained it and now is hesitant to relinquish it to others who have the strenght, conviction and self-belief to do much better for Nigeria. I oppose the PDP . As such I will keep bringing information to Nairaland that show , without doubt , that a vote for GEJ or Atiku is a vote for the continuation of the status quo. You would be surprised at the number of Nigerians planning to vote for GEJ who do not understand that he is a direct contributor to the misery of Nigerians.

~Bluetooth:

yardua was weak but jonathan is a complete puppet;who was being tossed up and down by everybody simply because of his greediness to be president by all means.
The same way the governors manipulated him into squandering the excess crude account in just few months after being made president.he's weak and unfit.honestly,i give credit to OBJ for his toughness over the legislature.

It is the same type of toughness , but with a pro-people sincerity and reformist political will, we require of anyone who will be President next year. OBJ was never a man totally behind the average Nigerian otherwise he would have achieved far more than he did.

Wonder whether we're ever going to get a critical mass of the required character traits all in one president.