SUVs For Lawmakers: Justifying The Insane!

 By Adekunle Adekoya

I am sure that I number among the millions of Nigerians that were stupefied when a senator justified expenditure of N160 million on one SUV for each of our lawmakers. To put it in street lingo, I was “flabberwhelmed and overgasted” when I read the rationalisation of the immoral act. To put it in proper context, let me recall the conversation.

Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi) spoke with newsmen on the public outcry against the vehicles’ purchase, and said the criticism was uncalled for as members of the other arms of government use similar vehicles.

He urged critics to beam their search light on ministers and members of state assemblies.

His words: “A minister has more than three land cruisers, Prado and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions; why us? The issue of buying vehicles for National Assembly members, you know it is a re-occurring issue. It occurs every assembly, it will always come up.

“If you go to state houses of assembly today, check out, most of them before they were even inaugurated, the governor would have bought vehicles for them, even local government chairmen. I drove the vehicle my local government chairman uses. So, why National Assembly?

“These vehicles that you see, go to Nigerian roads today, If I go home once, my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad.”

Karimi said the Senate settled for Toyota Land Cruiser against a local product after a comparative of analysis of cost, technical issues and durability of Nigeria roads.

“We want something that we can maintain for another four years. It is not the decisions of the senators alone, we did an analysis before arriving at Land Cruiser,” he said.

On the issue of cost, Karimi said: “When I came to the Senate, they gave me their liability. They have a liability of over N16 billion that is made up of different things, including vehicles purchased for members of 7th, 8th and 9th assemblies.

“If you are a businessman and you supply vehicles for somebody in 2014 or 2015 or so and up till now they are owing you. I am not trying to defend anybody.

“If a Land Cruiser in the market, let’s say it is A cost, you don’t expect somebody that will supply it to supply it at the price they are selling it in the market.

“It has to leave a margin and the civil service rule for supply allows 25% margin, plus 7.5% VAT. Out of that 25% margin, they will still remove 5% tax from it.

“You are telling someone to supply when the clients may even end up not making payment for three years and you want him to supply at the price they are selling in the market, it is not possible.” 

See where we are? Now let’s take this fatuous justification on a point-by-point basis.

That three similar SUVs are purchased for a minister is one reason they also must have SUVs. If my neighbour and his family defecate in the gutters openly, I should emulate them because we’re neighbours? Is the work schedule of a minister the same as that of a legislator? If this reasoning applies, then they should go right down — wear similar clothes, shoes, and shop in the same malls so they can pay same prices. They should also see same doctors. In fact, they should suffer same illnesses and diseases!

Next reason is that it is always coming up, each time there is a new assembly. Conceded. What was the price of a similar vehicle in 2015 compared to now? Next is the issue of bad Nigerian roads as justification. This really got me riled up. It is sickening to hear somebody in an arm of government that has oversight responsibilities on another justifying huge expenditure on vehicles on account of bad roads that were as a result of negligence and dereliction of duty by the arm over which they have oversight. And the solution to this is to burden the taxpayer further?

Further, the Senator in question defended the outrageous price of N160m for a vehicle that costs less than half of that sum in the open market. Why doesn’t the Senate pay its bills? Why should people render services and not get paid for as long as three, five, seven years? This reveals why procurement and contract frauds are some of the most easily perpetrated scams in Nigeria. This is because the condition to inflate contracts cost has been created.

When services are rendered or items procured, the system works in such a way as to make paying for them an uphill task. When payments are to be finally made, toll gates are erected along the payment route for the civil servants who do the grunt work to benefit from. It is a sure reason Nigeria will take long to see real development. Surely if this Senator goes to a restaurant, he will not eat on credit. Why the National Assembly, or even government?

Some state governments, like Rivers, have developed the system of paying upfront for contracts to avoid inflationary pressures that will lead to cost overruns. Why can’t the NASS do that? I don’t wish anybody bad, but it doesn’t make sense to drive in a N160m SUV that can crash and lose all its value in just one minute. Justifications and rationalisations aside, the NASS was immoral and unpatriotic on the matter of the N160m SUVs. The entire deal is a compound scam.

*Adekoya is a commentator on public issues