Institute says it’s less expensive to maintain legislators in Nigeria than in US, UK
National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) says it is much more expensive to maintain legislators in the US Congress and the UK Parliament than in Nigeria.



Its director-general, Ladi Hamalai, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday, was speaking against the backdrop of calls for a massive cut in the remuneration of Nigerian legislators.

Hamalai said most of those calling for cut in the salaries and allowances of National Assembly members were not informed on how much it costs to maintain a parliament.

“If you go to the US, UK the salaries of legislators may not be much but the budget of maintaining a single legislator in the US Congress is much. Each legislator has a budget for maintaining the office; each legislator is entitled to about 18 aides. This is apart from the many committee staff and research staff that they have at their disposal.

“We calculated the salaries of the legislator in the US Congress plus his personal aides; just this two will amount to almost N254 million in a year. Now, this is exclusive of budget for maintaining the office. They also have claims, re-imbursables. You travel to do a town hall meeting – these are eligible claims. So, it is not really cheap maintaining the congress in the US. Let’s even look at the UK Parliament. By the time you calculate all the expenses, it will cost between N90 and N100 million to maintain a UK parliamentarian. They have personal aides of between eight and 20 depending on the importance of the legislator,” she said.

Hamalai allayed fears that the cost of running the legislature in Nigeria would not have a negative impact on the economy.

“One would say yes their GDP is much higher; they can afford it; then our criticism should not be that they do not deserve this amount of money (paid to them); maybe you look at the implication on the economy. Now if you even look at the wider implication on the economy, you (will) discover that the whole budget of the National Assembly is just 3 percent of the national budget.

“If you calculate it – you have over four trillion naira federal budget in a year; the National Assembly this year has 120 billion naira; this is even less than three per cent. So is it the three per cent that would have so much impact as to cause so much damage to the national economy? I don’t think so.”
Also reacting to the calls for the country to adopt a unicameral legislature as a way of cutting the cost of governance, she argued that that would amount to changing the Nigeria’s system of government.

She said that subscribing to a unicameral legislature could weaken the principle of Separation of Powers and make the executive arm of government dictatorial.

“We need a system whereby we will have good checks and balances. We need a strong legislature; we need a strong judiciary in this country to make sure that everybody does the right thing,” she said

Source:http://www.nairausd.com/2015/08/institute-says-its-less-expensive-to.html?m=1

Twitter@nairausd

Not surprised

Nigerians don't be misinformed

this legislative fool saying that spending 3% on 0.000001 % useless unproductive ppl is not having impact on our budget

mikolo80:
this legislative fool saying that spending 3% on 0.000001 % useless unproductive ppl is not having impact on our budget

That is were the problems come from

Lolz, I like this kind of Joke...

which useless institute is that, if I catch the vc chai, when this group of legilathievies are busy taking almost 35% of Nigeria budget you say they are less expensive,, God will punish any one supporting corruption and living fat with Nigeria's money at the detriment of poor Nigerians. ahh kingsolex mo to binu se

ifyan:

That is were the problems come from

but to be honest WE voted for them

mikolo80:
but to be honest WE voted for them

Let's bear it

that woman is a waste of space. What kind of stupid logic is that.

At least she has said that the legislators themselves don't collect much salaries that the better part of the money spent on them IA for legislative aids etc and other things. I guess these are activities that benefit their nation because they want to get the best from their legislators.

But here in Nigeria, the chunk of the money is legislators direct wages and allowances.

Also, must we copy America or UK when the budget for our legislators eats up to 35% of our national budget. The budget of America and UK several times bigger than that of Nigeria. This woman must be very corrupt. They should investigate her.

ifyan:

Let's bear it

ah, no o na to change dem be d koko o

mikolo80:
this legislative fool saying that spending 3% on 0.000001 % useless unproductive ppl is not having impact on our budget

Also, maybe she should have told us what the percentage of the US and UK parliament budget is to their total budget. I just checked and it's less than 0.5%.

I guess we should also start comparing salaries of civil servants and minimum wage to our counterparts in the US and UK.

Id.iot person. And does ur so called stoopid legislators offer d same kind of deal, legislation u find in any of both countries? Why not compare them with India, or Peru, or any other country we hav a semblance of development with. Bas.tards! Need to stop here before I start hitting my head against d walls..... Nonsense!

Excuse to get more allowances and exorbitant salaries

Utterances like this exemplify evils in our polity that have been legitimately institutionalized.

Today a former Finance Minister decried bail-out to States to pay workers who are being owed salaries for months because of "financial ethos".

What exactly is the point of expensive governance or/and unyielding laws when the primary beneficiaries (the people) of governance are dying from lack of food, good health-care and other basic needs.

May be what we need is revolution and not change...

blackfase:
Id.iot person. And does ur so called stoopid legislators offer d same kind of deal, legislation u find in any of both countries? Why not compare them with India, or Peru, or any other country we hav a semblance of development with. Bas.tards! Need to stop here before I start hitting my head against d walls..... Nonsense!

Supported

Bevista:
Also, maybe she should have told us what the percentage of the US and UK parliament budget is to their total budget. I just checked and it's less than 0.5%.

I guess we should also start comparing salaries of civil servants and minimum wage to our counterparts in the US and UK.

the sooner the better, though productivity is the final determinant