Political parties’ chairmen and presidential candidates of various parties in the recently conducted general elections have kicked against the proposed wardrobe allowances for members of the National Assembly, describing the lawmakers as “unpatriotic.”
Media reports last week said the national lawmakers would get N8.64bn as wardrobe allo-wance with N21.5m per Senator and N17.5m per House of Representatives member.
But the chairman of Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Engr. Elias Mbam, later said the wardrobe allowance was actually 25 percent of the basic salary which when broken down amounts to N506,600 per legislator, per annum.
It is against this the former presidential candidate of National Conscience Party (NCP), Martin Onovo, said such bumper payments as salaries and allowances were outrageous and unlawful as the amount is higher than salaries of parliamentarians in developed countries like the US.
Onovo, in a statement released weekend, said even though Engr. Elias Mbam has refuted the issue, his denial does not and cannot close the issue.
“Consequently, it can be estimated based on the NASS budget and published reports that each senator earns over N200 million per annum. This is most definitely sinful in a country where the minimum wage is only N18,000 per month (N216,000 per annum),” he said.
Similarly, chairman and former presidential candidate of the United Progressives Party (UPP), Chief Chekwas Okorie, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, suggested that the allowances of lawmakers were too much and should be cut down considerably for other development projects.
“In my opinion, they are just meant to siphon funds; it is not part of patriotism. Now, a new government is in place and should grapple with these problems,” he said.
Also, the erstwhile presidential candidate of the Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Dr. Sam Eke, said legislators should not see lawmaking as a business but as service to those who elected them into office, saying the allowances are too much and should be cut down as in other countries of the worlds where “lawmaking is a part time issue.”
National chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Peter Ameh, in a tele-phone conversation with our correspondent said everywhere in the world government cut down the level of expenses except here in Nigeria where some people are bent on personal interest rather than service.
On his part, chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Dr. Yunusa Tanko, said the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari should take the issue of lawmakers’ allowances seriously by cutting them down to the barest minimum in order to be fair to Nigerians.
