SHOULD YAR'ADUA GET A PAY RAISE?

This might be old news to some people, but a recent scan of my Google Reader showed that I missed some interesting news from January. The Nigerian Senate voted to increase the pay of Nigeria's President, Vice President, Supreme Court Justices, lower Court Justices, Ministers, head of INEC, Maurice Iwu, and other officials throughout the federal government structure.
CRUCIAL TO LOWERING CORRUPTION, MAYBE?
Now, I understand that increasing the pay of legislators and other bosses charged with the management of important national affairs is a crucial element in reducing corruption. See, the theory goes as follows. If public officials feel that they are compensated well for their troubles, they will be less likely to dip into public coffers. From this perspective, an increase in pay for legislators and other public officials is indeed a good thing.

BUT,
(and yes, at this site, there is always a "but"), is this really necessary? I know that Yardy has 'committed' himself to defending and encouraging the 'Rule of Law' and some of his actions (i.e. Asset declaration) have gone long ways to foster hope that he brings with him a different style of leadership. Yet, I cannot help but cringe at the thought that already rich politicians and their peers are getting a pay hike again! The National Assembly wasted no time in increasing their newspaper, hardship and constituency allowances late last year. That should have more than compensated them. Alas, their increased allowance and the fact that they make much more money than most Nigerians is apparently not satisfactory.

MY CONCERNS
More important, however, is that this pay hike will reinforce the misguided notion that public office equates to financial wealth instead of public service. It is common knowledge that many people see public office as a means to acquiring massive wealth in a short amount of time. I personally believe that public officers should not use their position to acquire wealth while in office. Doing such creates a conflict of interest that is unacceptable. They can instead use their time in office to create the contacts that can make them money after their term in office.

Also, I would rather read that the National Assembly has written and signed a new law that will increase pay to employees in the public and private sector. The introduction of such a law would go a long way to help ordinary people in these trying times. Consider that Nigerians live in a nation rich in petroleum, and yet, the price of petrol is incredibly high by local standards. Additionally, many Nigerians spend a significant portion of their income to power their diesel generators due to inadequate electricity supply. And those are just Nigerians that have enough money to own a car and a generator, in the first place. These are not the majority of Nigerians, because those Nigerians are focused on feeding themselves and their families with the little they have.

So, should Yardy and his chums get a raise? In fact, let me clarify. Should they get a raise regardless of whether it is deserved or not? On this issue, my opinion is clear - No!


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