’Femi Asu
The Chairman of the Afenifere Renewal Group, Mr. Olawale Oshun, has said the creation of subheads in the budgets for constituency projects of the members of the legislative arm of government is another unwholesome method of depleting the resources available to government.
Oshun stated this at a public lecture entitled, “Politics and Governance: The Nigerian Contradistinction,” at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, on Tuesday.
He said, “If the executive arm of government cannot, on their own, turn their proposals into law, the legislators have no singular responsibility in the execution of the budget other than to carry out oversight functions thereupon.
“The executive and legislative arms of government in Nigeria must backslap one another, otherwise, in which other country is the executive function of implementing projects ceded to the members of the legislature.”
Oshun said if the elected officials were paid only their earned income, a substantial surplus would have been available to the government to chart a much more focused developmental path for the citizens.
He said most of the empowerment deliveries by the elected officials had failed to address the development needs of the society.
“Politicisation of our pay system and the unwholesome management of our revenue sources take investible funds away from government coffers,” he said.
According to the ARG chairman, the wage bills and allowances of elected officials at almost all levels of government in Nigeria are shrouded in secrecy and are estimated to be in multiples of the take-home pay of their colleagues in the United States and other developed countries.
He said, “Proper governance would entail labour unions laying emphasis on compelling, through sustained mass action, the National Assembly and other levels of government to lay open their books, and ensure that no elected official earns more than the highest-paid public servant as it is done in well-established democracies.”
The Dean, Faculty of the Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Prof. Iyiola Oni, said the faculty regularly organised the lecture series as part of its contribution to national discourse and nation building.
He commended the efforts of the social-cultural organisation, Afenifere, towards good governance.
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