Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, argued that politicians setting their own emoluments is both illegal and immoral.
This was said by Obasanjo during a speech he gave on Monday during the 60th anniversary celebration of the call to the bar of legal legend Aare Afe Babalola in Ado, Ekiti.
The former president expressed concern, saying that those who ought to uphold the constitution are “the ones who undermine it.”
Obasanjo claimed that the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), which he claimed the lawmakers had disbanded in order to set their own pay, was in charge of allocating salaries for elected officials.
In accordance with paragraphs 32(a-e) of Part I of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as modified), the commission is tasked with deciding on the appropriate compensation for those who hold political office, including parliamentarians.
Obasanjo said, “The point in Nigeria which I have seen and which I can attest to is most of the people who are supposed to be operationalizing 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 mobilization 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.”
Obasanjo said so many other aspects of the Nigerian Constitution such as the Federal Character were “absolutely ignored”, saying that the Federal Character Commission barely carried out its function.
The former President said that when the constitution is “continually breached like that”, the country’s democracy becomes one where anything goes.
He commended Aare Babalola for his contributions to the development of the country, saying that he had made things he met in life better than he met them.
He said, “You have met this world at a point, you have met your community at a point, you have met your family at a point and what you have done is that what you have met, you have made it better than what you have found.”
