By TINA TIMOTHY

Yoruba Emancipation Union Worldwide has charged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be bold, courageous and ready to step on big toes while chatting “a new course of sustained development for Nigeria.”

In an open letter to the President on Monday, March 11, 2024, signed by its Secretary General, Pastor Agbebi Joel Adebola and Director General, Prof. EFG Ajayi, the group commended Tinubu's determined efforts and courageous policies so far, which it said, "is targeted at laying solid economic foundation and the correction of distortions in the Nigerian economy", and urged him to reduce cost of governance by 50% and cutting down wastes in both human and financial resources while channeling such resources to other areas of the economy needing urgent attention.

“We wish to commend your determined efforts and courageous policies so far, targeted at laying solid economic foundation and the correction of distortions in the Nigerian economy, since you took over as President of Nigeria.

“We appreciate the bitter truth that most of the economic, insecurity and political challenges we are witnessing today, have always been with us in Nigeria, before your administration took over the mantle of leadership, on 29th May 2023.

“We cannot but lay emphasis on the fact, that practically all our past leaders either by way of commission or omission, failed woefully to put in place the right and enduring political, socio, economic, and security institutions, to completely remove or reduce the present gargantuan challenges with which we are confronted, and by serious implications which yourself, and the government continue to contend with.

“On a very serious note, the tasks are enormous, daunting and quite challenging indeed.

“To a very large extent, we do appreciate other contributory factors to the uphill tasks which made many past Nigerian leaders to look the other way. These include ethnicity, religion, as well as other primordial sentiments and inclinations. Be that as it may, this nation has two options. To either rise up, confront these challenges and remove them while enduring the anticipated pains once and for all. This is the path of honour, patriotism and sustained development for the Nation.

“Alternatively, we may continue in the path of lethargy, misgovernance, economic under-development, multi-dimensional insecurities, lack of focus and direction, lack of purposeful national mission and vision, which ultimately produces grinding poverty.

“We in the Yoruba Emancipation Union Worldwide, believe and trust you to choose the first path - a radical departure from the lethargy. We want to believe, you will indeed stand out as you did during your days as the Governor of Lagos State, where you scored many firsts in development metrics and laid the groundwork for the present development of Lagos State in spite of resistance and stiff opposition from different quarters between 1999 to 2007. We believe in you. You can do it. Your Excellency, please go ahead and chat a new course of sustained development for Nigeria,” Yoruba Emancipation Union Worldwide wrote.

The group further urged the President to cut down the size of government at all levels and restructure all the paraphernalia of offices to make them responsive to modern systems of government.

The letter continued: “As regards the main purpose of this letter, the present political structure of Nigeria is anachronistic to good government, the size of government, the bureaucracy and all their features, cannot guarantee smooth, swift and effective running of good government.

“The German scholar, Max Webber, made it abundantly clear, the indispensability of bureaucracy, we can still adapt and enculturate same to meet our peculiar political, economic and social requirements. We urgently need to provide answers to the bottlenecks, the delays in bringing about the benefits and gains of government policies to the citizens, the corruptions, the lethargy and above all, wastes in both human and financial resources, the inefficiency and lack of effectiveness which are features of our bureaucracies from the Federal, State and to Local governments.

“We need radical restructuring of all the paraphernalia of our offices to make them responsive to modern systems of government. A situation where we have more than three ministries or parastatals carrying out similar duties, is cumbersome, wasteful, generates delays and bottlenecks for speedy implementations of very important policies of government. Such ministries and parastatals have ministers, permanent secretaries, high numbers of directors and a huge number of civil servants which gulp huge amount of government funds, needed in other areas, that would better benefit the citizens.”

While referencing Punch Newspaper of 2020, the group decried the costs of running the National Assembly (NASS) and compared Nigeria’s healthcare and education budget with legislatures' budget, adding that the figures therein “make no sense, even to the senseless.”

Continuing, the group wrote: “The National Bicameral Legislative Arm of government certainly need special attention, the costs of running NASS should be drastically streamlined. The majority of discerning minds in Nigeria, holds the view that the jumbo pay received by members of the National Assembly, is humongous and a colossal waste of national resources; many Nigerians are of the view that National Assembly members should sit for maximum of 3 times per week, and their salaries adjusted to half of what they presently earn.”

Quoting a 2020 PUNCH newspaper report, YEU urged President Tinubu to “kindly please study the below figures, being disbursements to NASS, for the year 2020”:

Breakdown of what a Nigerian senator earns:

RUNNING COST

Newspaper Allowance – N1.24m, Wardrobe allowance – N0.62m, Recess allowance – N0.25m

Accommodation – N4.97m, Utilities – N0.83m, Domestic staff – N1.86m, Entertainment – N0.83m

Personal assistant – N0.62m, Vehicle mtce allowance – N1.86m, Leave allowance – N0.25m

Total running cost – N13.58m/month. This adds up to N162.96m annually

Consolidated salary

A Senator goes home with N750,000 monthly.

This sums up to N9m annually.

A Senator claims he is entitled to N200m annually to execute constituency projects.

Summary

Salary – N9,000,000 per annum, Running allowance: N163,000,000 per annum

Constituency projects: N200,000,000 per annum

Total: N372,000,000 per annum.

This amount is over N1,000,000 every day, including Fridays and Sundays when a senator is either in mosque or church.

A Senator also receives the following funds from the Federation account:

Severance gratuity – N7.43m, Furniture allowance – N7.45m, Motor vehicle allowance – N9.94m

Total: N24 million plus

Nigeria House of Representatives Salary:

The basic salary of a House of Representative member receives include:

Personal assistant, constituency, vehicle fueling/maintenance, domestic staff, entertainment, recess, newspaper/periodicals, utilities, house maintenance, vehicle loan, furniture, wardrobe, duty tour, accommodation, etc.

Speaker, House of Representatives: The head of Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber, the speaker, receives N4,954,220:00 (N4.95m) annually and N412,851:66 monthly, excluding allowances.

Members of the House of Representatives: Members of the lower legislative chamber, according to RMAFC, receive N9,529,038:06 (N9.5m) as annual pay and N704,086:83 every month as allowances

The total of Nigeria’s healthcare budget is N46 billion for 200 million people: Nigeria’s Education budget is N48 billion for 200 million people, and Nigeria’s legislators’ budget is N125 billion for 465 people.

“Dear Mr. President, the above figures in bold make no sense, even to the senseless,” YEU said.

To further reduce the cost of government, the group recommended the scrapping of constituency allowance for NASS members as well as security votes to governors, adding that, for us to come out of the woods where we find ourselves, we cannot afford to waste public funds on irrelevancies “that do not have any impact on the lives of our citizenry and the economy.”

The letter continued: “Mr. President, we strongly recommend the complete scrapping of constituency allowance for NASS members because, that is a crystal-clear duty of the 3 tiers of governments at Federal, State and Local levels. Constituency allowance is a duplication and monumental fraud. It is not reasonable nor sensible to any Nigerian, except the receivers and maybe, their beneficiaries.

“Another area of monstrous waste of public funds is the security vote paid to the Governors; the huge fund goes into the private pockets, otherwise, why is it that there is so much insecurity in the land? We hereby recommend that security vote should be scrapped completely.

“Sir, we bring it to your attention that Nigerians take serious exception to the countless number of vehicles in the convoy of public officers including the offices of the president; for the fact that fuel price have soared beyond the reach of average Nigerians, most people have permanently parked their cars at home, why then the astronomical increase in the convoy of public officers? Sir, the huge external debt with which we are burdened calls for frugality in public expenditure, and nothing else.

“Austerity measure is needed in our public expenses, and no discerning mind shall be convinced that some expenditures are constitutional; these times are tough, though measures must be adopted to come out of the economic woods, where we found Nigeria.

“We copied the Presidential System of government from the United States of America. But we are Nigerians. We cannot afford to waste public funds on irrelevancies, especially by wasting huge amount of funds and resources on offices and positions that do not have any impact on the lives of our citizenry and the economy. Many of the duties could be done on part time basis and will still provide the necessary positive results, rather than the full-time wastages.”

The perception of Nigerians of NASS members, who are either sleeping or engaged in idle talk during sittings, according to the group, implies that they are paid to sleep or “we are paying them for doing nothing,” while they recklessly display luxurious and opulence lifestyle, adding that the president should call them to order.

“The plea of the Presidency that Nigerians should bear the current economic hardship, has fallen on deaf ears and does not make any iota sense to an average Nigerian, because political office holders are grossly overpaid for the services they render. As a matter of fact, many Nigerians perceive our NASS Members as a people that we pay, to sleep; this line of reasoning is not unconnected with the bitter truth that whenever pictures or video clips of NASS Members are recorded at any time, about half or more are always sleeping, another school of thought submits that NASS is an avenue to show off dresses and engage in idle talks, this is because when serious issues are on the floor of NASS, most legislators are always talking with persons sitting next to them. Senators and House of Rep members are supposed to serve, they are not, instead we are paying them for doing nothing. We hereby urge the President to intervene on behalf of Nigerians to address the excessive payments to NASS. Sir, please note carefully that igerians perceive NASS members as “ojelus” rather than “oselus.” Please allow not Nigerians to intervene themselves, because the consequences would be too disastrous for Nigeria and Nigerians.

“We also call for a review of the salaries and other allowances of all political office holders including the president, vice president, ministers, directors, board members of parastatals and agencies, that all political salaries should be reduced by 50%, whosoever finds it too low, might as well resign and go into whatever businesses he or she may desire. The summary of this advice is that the president should make political offices less attractive in terms of financial remuneration, it is by doing so, that people who are ready to serve shall come forth, as opposed to the era where vampires and political gladiators thrives, at the peoples’ expense.

“Your Excellency, the era of large government with huge and bloated expenditures should be done away with, and replaced with a better, more efficient, more effective and smaller productive government. This is what we urgently need now, more than ever before in Nigeria.

“Your Excellency, please advise and caution those who are close to you and government senior officials to reduce their ostentatious display of opulence and lifestyles, especially with the dire economic situation in the country. We tenaciously hold the view to the effect that “you cannot display ostentatious life and preach to the people, austerity,” it doesn’t add up, it is incongruous and same makes a mockery of governance. Leadership should be by example; if wanton display of ill-gotten wealth is not urgently minimized, same shall undoubtedly jeopardize your serious efforts and determination to carry the populace along, and bring up a new Nigeria. Sir, we do not want your regime to suffer from delusional optimism because your close associates would not tell you the truth, hence this press statement to Mr. President.

“Reckless display of opulence naturally sends wrong signals to the citizens. Many would read the exhibition of luxuries as a peculiar style of the current government, and hence label the government as hypocritical, thereby creating rooms for enemies of government to weep up very unpalatable sentiments, criticisms and unnecessary hysteria.

“As much as possible, we advise your Excellency to be courageous and not be timid to take very serious and important decisions which in the long run, would benefit the largest number of Nigeria citizens. We of Yoruba Emancipation Union shall be deceiving this government if we fail to bring to your notice that, Nigerians are suffering, we hereby adapt Richard Hyman quotation, and declare that “the absence of specific manifestations of uprisings and protests should not be mistaken as sign of peace.” Nigerians have deep seated animosity regarding their economic misfortunes and please do not allow same to mature to open protests, the way to avert the looming danger is giving serious considerations to the honest and genuine suggestions made herein, in this open letter.

“This government must be ready to step on big toes of the entrenched enemies of Nigeria and Nigerians. There are also the internal, international crooks, the Brentwood institutions and their collaborators, about to have their ugly grips, strangleholds and tear off Nigeria. We do hope Your Excellency is well aware of these forces.”

Finally, the group lauded Tinubu’s courage in the removal of fuel subsidy, which it said “has shown that you mean well for this nation”, urging him to remain faithful to the course of building a new Nigeria.

“You have sauntered where the angels dread to tread, the removal of oil subsidy alone has shown that you mean well for this nation; please be courageous, bold, strong and be truly faithful to the course of building a new Nigeria, where your name shall be written in gold and etched on marble cast where neither rain, shine nor time would obliterate same,” the group wrote.