On Wednesday, Yakubu Dogara, a former speaker of the House of Representatives, stated that the monthly salary of legislators is insufficient to sustain them for longer than three days.
This came as he pleaded with the lawmakers to reveal their financial information in order to refute rumors that they were receiving enormous monthly salaries.
Dogara revealed this information during his speech at the House’s inaugural legislative open week in Abuja.
The leader of the Peoples Democratic Party claimed that while his monthly allowance as a presiding officer was N25 million, his salary as a member of the House was less than N400,000. He emphasized that the lawmakers’ salaries have been under scrutiny for some time despite their allowances.
He said, “While I was a Speaker, my salary was less than N400,000. I don’t know if it has been increased now. My total impress was N25 million, and I told my accountant to open a separate account for the impress, and I never for once took any money out of that account. Everything that came into that account was used to cater to the needs of constituents.
“My accountant complained of the level of demand on the account, and I told him if the money there is finished, borrow it. When money comes, you return it to where you had taken money from.
“I am saying this so Nigerians will give their legislatures breathing space and know that the narrative is not true about members’ pay.
“We all know that democracy is expensive, and if we think that it is too expensive, maybe we should ask our political scientists to develop for us a local model that will be cheaper for us.”
Considering the economic realities, the suffering in the land and new waves of crime connected to the high level of unemployment, the National Assembly should do with what they have or if it can be reduced because they have other allowances that gives them money.
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Rose Ajieh