The President of the Senate, Dr.
Ahmad Lawan has said that there was nothing like jumbo salary for National
Assembly members as being speculated in some quarters.
Lawan made the disclosure, when
members of the Senators’ Forum paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja
on Tuesday.
While further dismissing the
jumbo pay issue, he revealed that his monthly salary as a lawamaker and that of
his colleagues was N750,000.
“What I want to emphasize here is
that I never believed that that there is anything called Jombo pay to the
National Assembly.
“The National Assembly members
both the Senate and the House receive what is their salaries and I receive
N750,000 as my salary.
“But I need to function as a
senator , my office needs to be properly funded,” he said.
He promised that the national
assembly was going to be open to the general public in the conduct of its
legislative activities, particularly in the area of funding
“National Assembly is going to be
open to the public , I believe that the national assembly should have
everything open , let Nigerians Know, what we are doing.
“I believe that Nigerians need to
understand this, we need to continually engage with Nigerians and I will also
argue that we continue to explain to Nigerians, they deserve to know how their
resources are being utilised.
“ I believe that the national
assembly needs proper funding because the legislature is so critical in any
national development,’’ he said.
“This senate is a by-partisan
senate, senators consciously decided to work for us and we take that very
seriously, what that means is that we are going to make for progress Nigeria .
“Because what we have done is to
be patriotic and we belong to various political parties, but once we are here
Nigeria is our constituency.
“The Senate is going to be united
in the conduct of its oversight. It is a senate that will work for Nigeria. We
are going to do everything possible to remain united in a very by–partisan
manner and remain focused .
“Because the challenges against
Nigeria is enormous, we need to enhance our of security.
“We need to make sure the economy
works for every one for those at the lowest ladder and those at the top, this
is necessary I don’t believe that rancor or hostility will yield any positive
result.
“I have witnessed how rancour
undermined national development, I also witnessed a very peaceful and cordial
relationship that at the end of the day produce the kind of outcomes that
Nigerian desire.
“So we are here to follow the
part of peace, but we are going to be very seriously and systematically in our
over sight .
“A minister or head of
organisation that is expected to function must function,” he said.
He said the senate was determined
to ensure that the Nigeria returns to the January to December budget process .
“We have to work together and
archive what need to archive for Nigerians .
“We know the challenges and we
will work hard to ensure that we get the solution.
“This senate is determined to
ensure for example we pass the budget in three months and we believe this is
achievable and doable .
“All we require is for the
executive to provide the appropriation bill in good time may be at the end of
September or early week of September.
“The national assembly will sit
to ensure that there is defence of the budget by the MDAs and before we live
for Christmas we will ensure that the budget is passed, so that we go back the
January to Decemeber budget cycle,’’ NAN quoted him as saying.
One of the many calls made to
lawmakers of previous assemblies has been transparency in the National Assembly
budget.
Many activists and Civil Society
Organisations have overtime, queried the huge allowances allocated to the
lawmakers as they have refused to make the details of their budget public.
One of such allowances that
generated controversy in the eight Senate was the N13.5 million paid monthly to
senators as ‘running cost’.
On Tuesday, Mr Lawal refused to
speak specifically on the running cost, an indication the practise will
continue under him.
Another development that
characterised previous assemblies was the delay in passage of budgets as well
as budget padding. Previous assemblies spent over three months to pass the
annual budget and, on several occasions, the National Assembly gave excuses
like late presentation, failure of MDAs to appear before committees, oversight
functions among others for these delays.
Mr Lawan, however, urged
Nigerians to expect very good outcomes from the ninth assembly.
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