Confab: Request By Delegates For Aides To Be Paid Allowances Rejected By FG

While two delegates to the ongoing National Conference have publicly declared that they won’t receive any allowances throughout the duration of the talks, some delegates have asked that their aides be included among those to be paid allowances by the Federal Government.

Each of the delegates are to receive N12m for the three months exercise.

The allowance include money for accommodation, transportation, part of feeding (the delegates will be entitled to free lunch at the venue of the conference.

However, the delegates are expected to have aides such as drivers and personal assistants in order to ease their works and movements.

However, it was gathered that some of the delegates met in Abuja on Monday shortly after the inauguration of the conference by President Goodluck Jonathan where the welfare of their aides was tabled for discussion.

The delegates reportedly want the Federal Government to take over the allowances of their aides.

While some of them at the informal meeting said that the issue be raised during plenary, thinking that the N12m was meant for them and not their aides, a few of them were said to have disagreed.

A delegate was said to have cited the example of members of the National Assembly, whose aides, he said are paid by the FG.

“This does not affect the salaries and allowances of these lawmakers”, one of the delegates posited.

At the inaugural sitting on Tuesday, a delegate from Jigawa State, Senator Mohammed Jibrin, asked the leadership of the conference to inform delegate on the number of aides each of them were expected to have.

“We need to know the number of aides we are to employ”, he demanded.

In her response, the Conference Secretary, Mrs. Valeria Azinge, said there was no provision for personal aides of the delegates.

She also informed the delegates that the Federal Government had monetised their allowances in lieu of accommodation, transportation and sitting allowances. She, however, noted that the amount to be paid each delegate will not be made public by the conference secretariat.

“You will all receive your pay slips in two weeks intervals and we won’t disclose what is paid to you in the open. Each and every one of you is however free to divulge it, but that will not come from us”, Azinge said.