Yakubu Dogara, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, has disclosed that lawmakers’ monthly earnings are insufficient to last them more than three days.
Gatekeepers News reports that he made this revelation at the first-ever legislative open week of the House in Abuja, urging legislators to be more transparent about their finances to dispel the notion that they receive excessive monthly salaries.
According to Dogara, his monthly salary as a Representative was less than N400,000, while his monthly allowance as a presiding officer was N25 million.
He emphasised that despite the perceived generous allowances, lawmakers’ earnings are often misconceived and cannot sustain them 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.
