The Speaker of the House of the Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Friday, said he was not aware of the jumbo salaries being earned by legislators.
Dogara said this when he spoke with newsmen shortly after paying a courtesy visit to Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau.
He told newsmen that “when I hear about jumbo pay for legislators I get confused.
“The issue of salary is quite clear because we don’t fix our salaries; it is the responsibility of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to do that.
“Any Nigerian that wants the information can take the benefit of the Freedom of Information Act to request for this information from the commission.
“I do know that our salary is not in the region of N1 million per month.”
The speaker, however, said he was aware of discussions that relate to the allowances being paid to members.
He said the House of Representatives was ready to put the matter on the front burner as soon as it settled down for work.
According to him, the lower chamber of the National Assembly will conduct a legislative needs assessment.
Dogara said the assessment would be conducted by competent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in conjunction with development partners, pointing out that Nigerians would then know the true status of things in the National Assembly.
He said that his leadership of the green chamber would be fair and just in the distribution of committees to members.
The speaker said that the House had in the past operated as one family and his administration was willing to keep the tradition.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that from zonal level, there is fairness in whatever we do there up to the state level.
“And once we achieve that, we are 100 per cent guaranteed that there will be stability even though politics is all about resolving conflicts.
“Conflicts arise as a result of human imperfection; we will never run away from conflicts but we will always rise above conflicts.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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This man is being economical with the truth. If you are talking of "salary", of course, your salaries are not "jumbo". But we want to know all the allowances as well. In fact, what Nigerians want to see is a consolidation of all those allowances into an all-in salary. Enough of "wardrobe allowance", "security allowance" and what have you. Let us know exactly what you earn, not just what is labelled "salary".
ReplyDeleteDon't mind those legal robbers. They think we are fools
Delete5million annually will be OK
ReplyDelete