Legislators spend N682.7bn to pass 104 Bills since 2011

As legislators from various Nigerian political parties undergo primaries in an attempt to seek the voters mandate in 2015, one scorecard remains woeful on their respective incumbent records.

The low number of bills passed and huge sums of money expended on such unproductive legislative duties.

The 7th National Assembly (2011 -2015) inaugurated on 6th June, 2011, has managed to pass only

104 bills out of the 1,063 bills before it in the three and half years since inauguration, according to BusinessDay’s analysis of bill progression data from the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) an Abuja based non-partisan, non-profit firm.

The prorated cost of running the 7th assembly since its inauguration in 2011 till date, amounts to N573.2 billion ($3.18 billion), meaning N5.73 billion was spent on average by the legislature to pass one bill.

The near 40 percent drop in oil prices is also raising questions about the cost of running the assembly and its effectiveness in the face of a potential fiscal and monetary crisis.

“What has the National Assembly said or done about the recent slide in crude oil prices?” asked Ayo Teriba, an economist and CEO of research firm Economic Associates, at the BusinessDay energy conference held last month.

“This is democratic ineffectiveness,” Teriba said.

Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, meaning there is a legitimate need for a cutback on their outsized budgets as a fall out from the austerity measures announced by the finance minister.

The NASS budgeted a total of N682.7 billion between 2011 and 2014 to run its legislative activities made up of N232.7 billion for 2011, and N150 billion each for 2012, 2013, and 2014.

The average Nigerian Senator earns N353.7 million or $2.1 million per annum, made up of a basic salary (N2.48 m) and numerous allowances, including, constituency (N4.96 m), hardship (N1.2 m), accommodation (N4.9 m)  and car allowance (N9.9 m), among others, data seen by BusinessDay show.

This compares with $104,000 per annum for South African legislators, $74, 500 for Kenyan, $46, 500 for Ghanaians, $174,000 for U.S, and $157, 600 per annum for Brazilian legislators.

In terms of lawmakers’ salaries as a ratio of GDP per capita, the gap is even much wider.

While the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 700 times the country’s GDP per person of $3,000 that of a British member of parliament is just 2.7 times.

This means it will take an average Nigerian worker about 700 years to earn the yearly salary of a Nigerian legislator.

The NASS budget for 2014 is also equivalent to 13.3 percent of the FG’s 2014 capital expenditure budget of N1.12 trillion.

“The drop in revenues available for people in 2015 is significantly higher than the drop in oil prices,” said Bismarck Rewane, CEO of Financial Derivatives Company.

“Things are different now and politicians have to know the buffers are gone,” Rewane said, adding that politicians may still choose personal interest over cutting spending on themselves.

Meanwhile 73 percent of people in Nigeria thought that parliament or legislature was affected by corruption, data from Transparency Internationals (TI) most recent global corruption barometer shows.

Major pieces of legislation left undone by the legislators include the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which aims to unify all the necessary legislation in one bill and provide a clear framework for investment in Nigeria’s energy sector.

Other important bills awaiting passage are the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (Guarantee) Act, Agricultural Processing Zones (Est. etc) Bill 2014, Nigerian Railway Corporation Act (Amendment) Bill, 2011, a Health insurance amendment Bill, and National Housing Trust Fund Bill, 2011.

The assembly comprises a 109-member Senate and the 360-member House of Representatives.

Businessday