Olusola Adeyeye, lawmaker
representing Osun central senatorial district, says senators earned as high as
N20m as running cost until the 7th assembly presided over by David Mark.
Adeyeye disclosed this while
reacting to the criticism of his stance that Nigeria’s constitution poes a
problem for the country.
Last year, Shehu Sani, senator
representing Kaduna central, revealed that members of the upper legislative
chamber receive N13.5 million monthly as running cost, in addition to over
N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances of each senator.
Adeyeye said he played a pivotal
role in prevailing on David Mark, two-time senate president, to reduce the
running cost of the lawmakers.
“Let me say that the running
costs used to be very significantly higher than the current amount at a time
when the naira fetched twice its current value of hard currency,” Adeyeye said.
“I dare say that I was a pivotal
anchor of internal pressures that reduced the running costs from what was as
high as 20 million naira per month. I had long discussions with Senator David
Mark.
“To his credit, I did not need to
talk much to convince him about the necessity to reduce the running costs. The
knotty issues were the timing and magnitude of reduction.
“That Senator David Mark survived
eight years as Senate President, despite stepwise reduction of running costs
during his tenure, speaks volumes about his leadership skills and dexterity.
At plenary on Wednesday, Adeyeye
told his colleagues that they do not “have the spine to face what we need to
give this republic have peace and progress”.
He complained about an imbalance
of items listed in the exclusive list compared to the concurrent list while
canvassing for the creation of state police.
His statement sparked
controversy, with many disagreeing with his stance.
In his reaction, the lawmaker
said: “Nigeria’s problems emanate from a cabal of survivalist adventurers in
power drawn from all ethnicities. Of the 20 years span of our Fourth Republic,
southerners have held power for 14 years! Yet, pundits conveniently heap blames
on Northerners and Fulanis as if Obasanjo and Jonathan are northerners.
“One sad aspect of the discourse
on the maladies afflicting our Republic is the tendency to project northern
states as parasitic on southern oil. But are Osun and Ekiti less parasitic than
Kwara and Jigawa in terms of the proportion of their budgetary revenues that
are derived from allocations from Abuja?
“If the abuse of State police is
sufficient reason for disbanding it, perhaps we should long have disbanded the
Nigeria Police for the same reason! Add to that the Nigerian Army, the EFCC and
other monopolized instruments of coercion which Obasanjo used repeatedly to
subvert elected governments of Anambra, Plateau, Ekiti and Oyo!
“Despite differences because of
history and local situations, is it an accident that the vast majority of
federalist constitutions across the world make provisions for local or provincial
police? Aside from dispensing tyranny and perennial inefficiency, in what
aspect of Nigerian life has our Republic benefitted from overbearing
centralism?
“To say that all I have done has
been to complain is quite disingenuous; it also is a clear pointer to selective
recall. In my speech, I cited bringing a solution to the atmosphere of terror
and crime which I inherited as Chairman of my Local Government. Was that not a
valid example of bringing local ingenuity to solve a local problem?
“In any case, rather than
metaphorically drawing daggers at each other’s throats over such matters,
should we not expunge the names of the LGs from the Constitution and let each
state create whatever suits its logic or lack of it?”
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