Former legislator says lawmakers monthly earnings can’t last more than three days

• He said this while speaking at the first-ever legislative open week in Abuja
  

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Former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara stated on Wednesday that lawmakers’ monthly earnings last only three days. He urged legislators to disclose their finances to counter claims of receiving exorbitant salaries.

Speaking at the first-ever legislative open week in Abuja, Dogara, a People’s Democratic Party chieftain, revealed his monthly salary was under N400,000 during his tenure, with a monthly allowance of N25 million as a presiding officer.

He emphasized that despite the scrutiny of lawmakers’ earnings, their allowances are insufficient for more than three days.

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.”

The former speaker further urged the lawmakers to stop the people from bullying them into surrendering the current democracy for whatever reason.

Recall that recently, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu, said the current salaries of federal lawmakers cannot take them home to do the jobs they were elected to do.

While stressing that the take home pay of the average lawmaker is a ‘far cry’ from what people insinuate, Kalu called for understanding, saying the call for the slashing of their salary by 50 per cent is not the solution to the current problem.

Kalu said, “At the moment, talking about the salary of the National Assembly. I have said this over and again; it is not as much as people think. Salary is different from allowance, which is meant to do the jobs our constituents have sent us to do.”