Reps’ N160m vehicles

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SINCE reports emerged last week that members of Nigeria’s Green Chamber, the House of Representatives, were going to take delivery of bullet-proof, exotic Sports Utility Vehicles valued at N160 million each, there has been outrage in the polity. Rationalising the unconscionable expenditure, the spokesman for the chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Akin Rotimi, claimed that the vehicles were operational vehicles tied to oversight functions. His words: “This development is in accordance with extant procurement laws and has been the practice in previous assemblies. It is also not peculiar to the legislature, as unelected government officials in the executive arm of government from Director level and above, in most cases, have official vehicles attached to their offices. The vehicles are not personal vehicles gifted to honourable members. For the duration of the 10th assembly (2023 – 2027), the vehicles shall remain the property of the National Assembly. At the expiration of the tenure of the 10th Assembly in 2027, should the extant assets deboarding policy of government still be in place, honourable members may have the option of making payment for the outstanding value of the vehicles to government coffers before they can become theirs, otherwise it remains the property of the National Assembly.”

Naturally, this alibi only energised opposition to the plan. For instance, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) asserted that the elected representatives, instead of addressing the severe poverty afflicting their constituents, had chosen to indulge in a reckless pursuit of personal aggrandisement. It said: “This act is not just an act of self-indulgence; it is an act that highlights the stark disconnect between lawmakers and the ordinary citizens they were elected to serve. Just last Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics disclosed that Nigeria’s inflation rate had climbed to 26.72 percent, marking a 0.92 percent increase from the previous month’s 25.80 percent. Of particular concern is the fact that the National Assembly embarked on this lavish expenditure without offering sustainable alternatives or cushioning measures to mitigate the economic hardship caused by the removal of fuel subsidies. With over 133 million Nigerians experiencing multidimensional poverty, the distribution of over N100 billion worth of luxury cars to less than 500 National Assembly members is deemed an unforgivable legislative crime.” On its part, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to restrain the lawmakers from procuring and taking delivery of the cars pending the hearing and determination of the application filed by its lawyer to challenge what it described as a wasteful and insensitive expenditure.

To be sure, the planned purchase of exotic vehicles valued at N57.6billion for members of the Green Chamber, with similar or higher expenditure on official vehicles for the use of members of the Red Chamber, is yet another indication that members of Nigeria’s political class have nothing but contempt for the people over whom they preside. When President Bola Tinubu took office on May 29, he announced an end to the regime of subsidy on PMS, instantly plunging millions of Nigerians deeper into the throes of poverty, deprivation and degradation. Since then, he has only granted a N35,000 increment in the salaries of federal workers instead of instituting a new national minimum wage designed to give Nigeria’s long-suffering workers a measure of relief. Meanwhile, the economy is tottering, unemployment is worsening as more industries close shop by the day, and Nigeria’s debt has spiralled to over N80 trillion. Against this backdrop, nothing can explain or indeed justify the jaw-dropping luxury in which Nigeria’s federal lawmakers have chosen to bask at a time when their compatriots are literally living from hand to mouth. This point does of course apply equally to the executive arm of government whose members also live in the lap of luxury.

If anything, the management of the National Assembly has demonstrated clearly that it is anti-people, unconscionably corrupt and utterly despicable. To be sure, going by precedent, no one expects members of the National Assembly to be denied official vehicles. For one thing, the use of official vehicles is associated with governance in this clime at all divisions and levels of government, and there is no valid case to be made for denying any arm of government vehicles while giving them out to others. However, given the precarious economic situation in the country, the leadership of the National Assembly should have exercised caution and not displayed its usual squandermania anchored in utter lack of patriotism. It should not have purchased such prohibitively prized, bullet-proof vehicles designed to insulate users from the realities of everyday life. The idea of federal lawmakers cruising in exotic cars while the nation expends at least 97 percent of its earnings on debt servicing while still borrowing to perform basic functions is warped, injurious to the national wealth, and indicative of a rapacious, predatory government.

Amid the damning silence of political parties in the face of the outrageous expenditure, the Labour Party (LP) must be commended for expressing sadness over the plan and calling on the members elected on its platform to reject the vehicles. Even if the LP lawmakers have elected to ignore their party, the fact that the LP leadership chose the honourable path of thumbing down legislative profligacy is commendable. The expenditure, even in the most benign assessment, is reckless and thoughtless. Just how could lawmakers be given exotic official vehicles at such prohibitive cost in a nation where the government is only giving workers palliatives, and where poverty continues to mount at a frightening pace? How can the political class be so oppressively corrupt? How can the government be talking about economic problems and its lean resources necessitating a dependence on loans, and yet be buying exotic vehicles for legislators? The government, as a reflection of the stringent times, ought to be working to reduce expenditure by shrinking the perks enjoyed by elected officials. Nigerians are having to cope with growing inflation which is making life increasingly unbearable, and politicians indulging in excesses as if there is no economic downturn sends wrong signals.

We hope that the government has sensed the danger in such development and will stop it.

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