lamido Sanusi holds ground against Reps on pay claims

THE sting hurts badly this time and no other remedy would do except to come clean on the matter.

And so, following widespread outcry against the recent disclosure by the Central Bank Governor, Lamido Sanusi, that members of the National Assembly consume 25 per cent of federal overheads, the Senate yesterday hinted that it might publish a detailed outline of salaries and allowances of its members.

The decision was taken yesterday at an executive session of the Senate after its plenary.
However, the CBN governor went before the House of Representatives joint committee investigating his claim and insisted that 25 per cent of the entire federal overheads was expended on the National Assembly.

Expectedly, the House committee disagreed, declaring that Federal Government’s total recurrent expenditure as contained in the 2010 budget was N1.3 trillion as against the N536 billion quoted by Sanusi.

Meanwhile, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chibudom Nwuche, yesterday said lawmakers earned less than N400,000 monthly during his time at the National Assembly.

Nwuche, who is the deputy Zonal Co-ordinator, South-South, Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation, spoke with the media shortly after the launch of the Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation in Benin City, Edo State.

His words: “In my time we earned approximately N400,000 a month and N8 million a year. It was not more than the average workers’ wage per year but over the years it has ballooned. Lawmakers must be conscious of the sufferings and aspirations of the people they represent or govern. Lawmakers should be conscious that people are poor and they must not be seen as not listening to their yearnings.”

The House committee, headed by the House Minority Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, said that the National Assembly’s overhead cost, which stands at N136 billion was only 8.9 per cent of the total federal overheads of N1.38 trillion.

But Sanusi told the committee that he relied on the Federal Government’s 2011 to 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, which had already been approved by the National Assembly, to arrive at his own calculations.

According to him, the N136.25 billion total overhead of the National Assembly is 25.41 per cent of Federal Government’s total overhead of N536.26 billion.

But the committee differed with Sanusi, stressing that the CBN chief ought to have based his calculation on the Federal Government’s total recurrent expenditure of N814.60 billion.

When the committee sought to know whether Sanusi had any regrets for his action, he re-iterated that he believed his figures were right considering his source.

When Sanusi declared his intention to explain his analysis further, Ndume quickly asked that a motion be moved to adjourn the meeting.

He asked Sanusi to issue a statement later to clarify the issue.
The CBN governor cautioned the National Assembly against the danger of reacting to every comment it considered offensive, arguing that such attempt might amount to suppressing other citizens’ assessments of government policies.

Sanusi stated that his motive for making the statement was more of cautioning government against high re-current expenditure rather than maligning the National Assembly.
He stressed that he would continue to speak up on issues he considered too dangerous to the economy no matter how unpleasant they might sound.

His words: “There are at times when we say certain things, the President himself will not be happy. The National Assembly may not be happy but if every time we say something and people are not happy they take it as an attempt to bring them down or to undermine them or to attack democracy, what happens is that other public officers who have this responsibility would then decide that for fear of being misinterpreted or misrepresented they will not speak up. But that is what will undermine the very structure that we are putting in place.
“So, I cannot sit here and convince you that I wasn’t being mischievous because if I was being mischievous you think I will not admit but I don’t think we should go into the question of motives or intention.

“If I criticise government and the President is not happy with me I will come to the National Assembly for protection.

“What is the motive of a Central Bank Governor to go out and malign the National Assembly? In what way will the Governor of the Central Bank or the Central Bank benefit from a bad relationship with the National Assembly? I have no motive but you see, there are times in the course of our work when we have to say things that people may not like hearing.”

According to sources at the Senate meeting, the Appropriation, Banking and Currency and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) committees, which investigated Sanusi’s statement, tendered a report to the lawmakers saying that the CBN governor did not get his facts right before making the statement.

But some senators, it was learnt, were miffed that the committees did not recommend any punitive measure against Sanusi.
The Guardian, however, gathered that the chamber agreed that in order to clear the deep public misgiving about members’ emoluments, the issue should be made public by way of an advertisement in the media.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Information, Ayogu Eze, could not be reached on the telephone but a senator who spoke to The Guardian on condition of anonymity said that “it has been proved through the public hearing that Sanusi did not get his facts right and this was corroborated by the response of the Finance Minister during the public hearing.”

Source:/www.ngrguardiannews.com