AfricaResource The Place for Africa on the Net

By Nnaemeka Meribe and Gbenga Adeniji

Thursday, 16 Dec 2010

A comparative analysis of Nigerian legislators‘ earnings and those of other countries reveals that the former can pay many of their counterparts in other countries and still remain very rich,  Nnaemeka Meribe and Gbenga Adeniji write.

An Indian lawmaker needs to work for at least 49 years to earn the annual salary of a Nigerian senator. A lawmaker in India earns $23,988 (N3.7m) per annum while a Nigerian senator earns $1.2m (N182m) per annum. A monthly breakdown shows that while an Indian lawmaker earns $1,999 (N305, 058) per month, a Nigerian senator earns $ 99,167(N15.18m) per month.

In his piece CBN and Sharia Banking (The Guardian 16 June 2011), Lateef Adegbite abjectly misunderstands the meaning of secularism. Nigeria is a secular nation not a multi-religious one. And it is precisely because of its secularism that makes its multi-religious character possible. Think of it this way: no Muslim would want a church to be built on a land they have consecrated to be their holy ground even though the church is also a holy place. And no Christian would want traditional worshippers to practice in their church. The space which made it possible to build churches, mosques, shrines in their respective places without infringing on the other’s holy grounds is the secular space. The more secular a space is, the easier for religions to coexist. A completely multi-religious setting guarantees that one religion is always infringing on the space of the other.

By Eunice Machuhi

July 6 2011 at 20:55

Six years after she heeded her parents’ plea to marry an elderly childless woman who needed an heir, Ms Monicah Jesang’ Katam has left a mark in the country’s legal landscape.

She already had two sons who would fill the void in the life of the elderly Cherotich Kimong’ony Kibserea, then 83 years old.