Legislator’s Jumbo Pay, Cost of Governance and the State of Education in Nigeria: Issues and Contradictions

John  Kalama; Charity E.  Etebu; Charles A.  Martha; Sophia M.  John

Authors

John Kalama Department of Political Science,Bayelsa State College
Charity E. Etebu Department of Business Management,Bayelsa State College of Education, Brass Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
Charles A. Martha Department of Geography,Bayelsa State College of Education, Brass Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
Sophia M. John Department of Economics,Bayelsa State College of Education, Brass Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The revelations made by Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, concerning the
wages and allowances of federal legislators in Nigeria and the controversy it generated prompted this academic research. The
findings in this study however show that the salaries and allowances currently being enjoyed by federal legislators in Nigeria is a
breach of Section 70 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which makes it clear that a member of the Senate
and House of Representative shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal
Commission may determine. Further investigations also reveal that spending 25 percent of Nigeria’s federal budget overhead
cost on the National Assembly alone has created income inequality which has widened the gape between the income of civil
servants and political office holders in the country. Further findings also show that excessive spending on recurrent expenditure
such as the huge legislators jumbo pay and servicing of domestic debts spent on over heads have contributed to the neglect of
the education sector and other critical sectors of the economy which has equally affected the cost of governance in Nigeria. The
systems political theory was applied while analyzing and explaining the subject-matter. In terms of methodology and scope,
descriptive analyses and secondary sources of data (textbooks, published articles and journals) were relied upon. Nevertheless,
to ensure equity and fairness in income allocation and distribution in Nigeria, we recommend that the federal government
through the Revenue, Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should moderate, harmonize and fix salaries in
line with due process and existing laws. In order to reduce the cost of governance in the country, budgetary allocations to the
education sector should also be increased in order to meet the manpower needs and infrastructural challenges facing the sector.