A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has claimed that the monthly earnings of lawmakers cannot last more than three days.
Dogara mstated this on Wednesday, while speaking at the first-ever legislative open week of the House in Abuja.
According to him, when he was Speaker, his monthly salary was less than N400,000, while his allowance as a presiding officer was N25million monthly.
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.”
