Shehu Sani, the Senator representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, at the National Assembly, has emphasised that lawmaking is their primary function.
In an interview with The News Magazine recently, Sani said that the primary function of the National Assembly is to make laws and serve as watchdog. It is not their duty to provide infrastructures or be involved in constituency projects. He decried the inability of Nigerians to differentiate the functions of the Legislators from Executive.
According to Sani, “when people are elected to the National Assembly, they should just be involved in lawmaking, raising motions, bills and also performing oversight functions.
“But we live in a society where people cannot differentiate between the legislators and the executive.
“An underdeveloped society with a lot of poverty, misery and wants. What people want is for you to address those basic fundamental issues that affect their lives.
“When the people come to you, they want you to build roads, dig boreholes, build hospitals, schools, give money, pay school fees for them. Now, if we have a society in which people will stop asking legislators to do those things, then there is no need (for allowances). But funny enough, if you are very active in the National Assembly in making laws and you don’t embark on projects in your constituency, you cannot in any way be appreciated by the people you are there to serve because the electorates in the United States are different from the electorates in Africa.
On salaries and funds, Shenu Sani said they are not expected to account for their salaries which he stated to be N750, 000. However, running costs must be accounted for.
“The only money you are not expected to account for is your salary and the salary of a senator is about N750, 000.00 per month. The other one, the running cost of office must be accounted for. You must provide a receipt for every expense you make,” he added.
“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every Senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.
“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.
“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.
