Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, has faulted the call for part time legislators, recommended by the Public Service Committee of the national conference to reduce the cost of governance at council, state and federal levels.
Victor Ndoma-Egba
The proposal is “a cheap propaganda” by conference delegates who are not fair in their assessment, Ndoma-Egba scoffed, wondering why they focus on only the legislature to cut the cost of running government.
He dismissed it is “as strange recommendation” because he does not see how it can work in a presidential system.
“I’m not aware of any country with presidential system practicing part-time legislature. If their worry is truly about the cost of governance, then they need to think more deeply and do a proper and dispassionate assessment of the situation on ground,” he counselled.
He argued that the budget of the National Assembly (NASS) in the past six years has remained N150 billion, less than 3 per cent of the entire federal budget that is about N4.9 trillion for 2014.
That means even if the NASS is scrapped, only about 3 per cent of the budget will be saved.
“This 3 per cent takes care of the salaries of the lawmakers and their allowances, salaries of their aides, salaries of the staff of the National Institute of Legislative Studies from the DG (director general) to the cleaner, staff of National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), our subscription to international parliamentary bodies,” Ndoma-Egba explained in a statement he issued in Abuja through his Media Assistant, Michael Jegede.
“Can you compare this with the opaque fuel regime and the pension regime? What I receive as a Senator is not different from what a minister or Supreme Court judge receives as salary. All these can be confirmed at the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
“Why are they not talking about cutting down the salaries of ministers? Do they know the overhead cost of running the office of a minister? Why are people trying to make the legislature the scapegoat?”
On the claim that Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid in the world, Ndoma-Egba countered: “It is not true. Just google the salary of a U.S. (United States) senator and you will see that what [he] receives as salary compares to a Nigerian senator. Here is my pay slip. My salary and allowance every month is N948,373.16 which is less than N12 million per annum.
“A U.S. senator’s basic salary alone is $174,000 per annum. If you multiply that by N164 as of today, you will get N28, 536, 000.
“I am only entitled to six aides as Nigerian senator. But the personal staff allowance of a U.S. senator allows him to hire staff both in Washington and his district office between the range of 26 to 60 with a maximum pay per employee at $156,848 as of 2005.”
