Retired Catholic Archbishop of Lagos State, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie and Constitutional lawyer, Prof Itse Sagay, have called on members of the National Assembly to emulate President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by slashing their salaries.
Messrs Buhari and Osinbajo had agreed to a 50 per cent pay cut as part of efforts to reduce the cost of governance.
Cardinal Okogie hailed Buhari’s initiative even though he was faulted why the number one and two citizens “didn’t tell us about their allowances”.
“Public officers in the country should compare their salaries and allowances with what is obtained in other climes and adjust theirs. We have to do this honestly and frankly, because these are the areas all the monies that should be for the development of the country and the people are going into”, he told The Nation by phone.
The Clergyman added: “It is unfortunate that they are collecting big salaries and bogus allowances when many workers are being owed salaries”.
“A lot of people are being retrenched in their places of work every day because the economy is inclement to both the entrepreneurs and the masses. Is this not the simple reason the challenge of armed robbery, kidnapping, assassination and terrorism is on the rise in the country?”
In his reaction, Prof Sagay said any reduction being planned by members of the National Assembly should be rigorous and far-reaching.
His words: “The slash in the salaries and allowances of members of the National Assembly should be more rigorous and far reaching. They collect about N150 billion per annum. Somebody said that what each of them gets every month is in the region of N29 million per month, albeit mine showed something above N15 million.
“There should be a drastic reduction in all their allowances, which include one for hardship. So it is hardship to be working in offices fitted with air conditioners? They should not be getting more than one third of what they have been getting and if they refuse, we should make them to be working on part-time so that what they would be getting would be on the basis of the number of times they sit”.
Speaking on what to expect from the members of the National Assembly, the Senator representing Ondo Central, Tayo Alasoadura, said that the Senate will hinge its decision on salary cut on the recommendations of the committee it set up to advise it.
He said: “we are now waiting for the recommendations of that committee. It is what the committee advises that we would do. You know that it is easier for the executive arm to sit down and come up with such a decision.
“But for the National Assembly, such decision is not what the president can decide unilaterally on behalf of the 109 senators and 360 House members. I am sure that we would come with a decision on that when the committee submits its report”.
