CONTEMPTUOUS as ever of public opinion, the 469 members of the National Assembly have started taking delivery of luxury SUVs estimated to eventually cost the taxpayer N57.6 billion. They brushed aside public opposition questioning the propriety of such expenditure at this time when majority of Nigerians are poor, the treasury is empty, the country indebted, and the economy wobbly. It is another sickening display of avarice by supposed representatives of the people. Nigerians should protest the outrageous expenditure.
Unjustified in all material particulars, the lawmakers demonstrated their distance from the people, and their utter lack of patriotism by rejecting suggestions to patronise locally assembled vehicles, and at least keep some Nigerians in employment. But they insisted on spending scarce foreign exchange to satisfy their craving for foreign-made SUVs at public expense.
Each lawmaker is receiving a Toyota Prado SUV reportedly worth N130 million-N160 million. Earlier, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, had reportedly ordered four Lexus SUVs valued at N1 billion.
Provocatively, the luxury may be financed with part of the N500 billion petrol subsidy stoppage palliative spending. How callous! The package is supposedly to provide succour to poor Nigerians that numbered over 133 million even before the subsidy removal and naira flotation triggered rocketing inflation and more hunger.
Inflation hit 26.72 per cent in September, and food inflation 30.64 per cent. The naira exchange rate that impacts greatly on domestic prices, has similarly scaled N1,200 to US$1. Nigeria ranks 109th among 125 countries in the 2023 Global Hunger Index, at a level designated as “serious,” and confirming an alert by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation that 25 million Nigerians risk hunger. A forecast by KPMG of 41 per cent unemployment this year is likely to turn out higher as the ongoing adversity worsens.
The lawmakers have been proffering diverse justifications. They insist that the purchase is in accordance with the procurement laws. They also claimed that since members of the executive arm were also entitled to such perks, they should too; and that the vehicles would be deployed in the discharge of their statutory and oversight functions. They similarly cited the poor state of Nigeria’s roads to justify the size of the vehicles.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Services, Sunday Karimi, said, “Somebody that is a Minister has more than three Land Cruisers, Prado and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions, why us? And these vehicles that you see, go to Nigeria roads today, If I go home once, my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad.”
These excuses are shallow, unconvincing, and insensitive. As CSOs have pointed out, the roads are bad for everyone, and they result from the failure of the executive and legislative branches to deliver good governance.
On display is a staggering culture of entitlement. Statutorily, the lawmakers can access 400 per cent of their annual salary as car loans. In July, the senators collected N2 million each as “recess allowance.” A comparison of lawmakers’ salaries in 29 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed that Nigerian lawmakers were the highest paid.
Picodi, a global e-commerce platform, in 2022 reported that Nigeria’s minimum wage of N30,000 monthly “cannot cater for the nutritional needs of one adult person.” About two million MSMEs collapsed between 2017 and 2021, said the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria.
Amid prevailing conditions, this self-indulgence at public expense is treacherous. But such travesties persist because Nigerians fail to strongly demand accountability, prudence and good governance from elected officials. They should constantly mobilise and employ all lawful means to make their voices heard, and make them count.
