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This week, members of the Burkina Faso’s interim legislature agreed to take a 50% cut in their monthly salaries. It followed complaints by members of the trade union movement and civil society organizations, that the $3000 monthly salary they earned was too high.
That amount was twenty times higher than the national minimum wage. In response, the legislators accepted a 50% cut in pay. The Vice President of the National Transition Council (CNT), Honore Nombre, said lawmakers had agreed to forfeit a number of benefits initially offered and would now be paid a total of 888, 000 CFA francs ($1, 580) per month instead of 1.7 million CFA francs. According to Nombre: The CNT is conscious that we are as aresult of the people and for the people”.
It is significant that legislators in Burkina Faso accepted to hearken to the demands of society. In Nigeria, from all accounts, the Nigerian Legislature’s budget for 2015 retains all the emoluments that they have always enjoyed.
Not for our legislature any hint of acceptance of some level of sacrifices, in tune with the serious economic situation that Nigeria faces in 2015, given the sharp and disastrous drop in the price of crude oil in the international market.
The creature comfort of members of our legislature must not be touched in any way. The sacrifices for economic survival belong only to the Nigerian working people and the poor! Is Aminu Tambuwal aware of the spirit of sacrifice that is being displayed by his counterparts in Burkina Faso? Why can’t we see such a display of patriotism in the Nigerian setting? Just a patriot’s curious question.
Aminu Tambuwal @ 49
LAST week, Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, House of Representatives, clocked 49years. Expectedly, Nigerian newspapers raked in tons of money from advertisements from members of the nation’s political nomenclatura, who were congratulating the Speaker on his birthday. Aminu Tambuwal, has certainly become one of the most important politicians in Nigeria today.
This attainment was as a result of incredible political sagacity; team building acumen and ability to stay a step ahead of his adversaries. And in the past few years, at the helm of affairs in the House of Representatives, his team building ability has come to the fore most poignantly as much as his ability to sidestep political booby traps laid by political foes. The fact that he survived the PDP’s anger at his emergence as Speaker was indicative of astute political ability and his staying power must also be located in the ability to keep his colleagues close to his vision of leadership.
When he defected to the opposition APC, he opened a Pandora’s box but has so far survived the long knives trained to injury his position as well as destroy him fatally in the cloak-and-dagger world of Nigerian politics. As things stand today, it is looking most likely, that he will be the next governor of Sokoto State, after the February elections. This amazing young man will still be around for a long time yet, in the unfolding scenarios of Nigerian politics. Happy Birthday Aminu Tambuwal, Speaker, House of Representatives.
