Obasanjo said this on Monday during a speech at the 60th anniversary celebration of legal hero Aare Afe Babalola’s call to the Bar in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, while noting that lawmakers acted immorally and unconstitutionally by fixing their own emoluments.
Former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has tackled Nigerian lawmakers, saying they are insensitive to the plights of the masses.
Obasanjo said this on Monday during a speech at the 60th anniversary celebration of legal hero Aare Afe Babalola’s call to the Bar in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, while noting that lawmakers acted immorally and unconstitutionally by fixing their own emoluments.
According to Obasanjo, the salary allocation for elected officials is the job of the Revenue Mobilisation distribution and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), which the lawmakers, he claimed, have abandoned in order to fix their own salaries.
The commission is tasked with assessing the proper remuneration for political officeholders, including parliamentarians, under paragraph 32(a-e) of Part I of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Obasanjo was quoted by Channels TV as saying, “The point in Nigeria which I have seen and which I can attest to is most of the people who are supposed to be operationalising or managing and seeing the constitution and democracy move forward, they are actually the ones who undermine the constitution.
“All elected people, by our constitution, their emolument is supposed to be fixed by the revenue mobilisation commission, but our lawmakers set that aside and they make laws and put any emolument for themselves.
“Even if that is constitutional, it is not moral and, of course, it is neither constitutional nor moral.”
He also stated that many other provisions of the Nigerian Constitution, such as the Federal Character, were "completely ignored," and that the Federal Character Commission scarcely functioned.
When the constitution is "constantly violated like that," the former President added that the country’s democracy becomes one in which anything goes.
Former Nigerian leaders praised Aare Babalola for his contributions to the country's progress, saying he improved on problems he encountered in life.