House of Reps to Cut Down Salaries, Allowances

The House of Representatives has put mechanisms in motion that would ensure a drastic cut in the funding of its activities, including salaries and allowances

The Green Chamber of the National Assembly also indicated its readiness to give President Muhammadu Buhari every backing he needs in his anti-corruption war.

Chairman of the House Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mohammed Sani Zorro, who made this known to journalists yesterday in La­gos. Read the statement when you continue


His words: “We are ready to support unconditionally, the war against corruption as spearheaded by the ex­ecutive arm of government under President Muham­madu Buhari.”

“I can tell you this on behalf of the House – whoever is averse to the war against corruption in Nigeria is not a patriot. All patriotic people, whether in the Na­tional Assembly or outside of it, must support this war because of the implication of the degenerative level of our own corruption, which has compromised every­thing that Nigeria used to be. We are ready to assist in the building of a strong and strategic Nigeria. This cannot come about with all these reports in the news­papers of pervasive corrup­tion. So, unconditionally, the House will support the war against corruption” he added.

Reacting to insinuations that the scope of the anti-corruption probe should be widened, the legislator said it was the preroga­tive of the executive arm of government, which had control over the security and intelligence agencies to decide what should be done.
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On the position of the House, he said: 

“But what the parliament does is to check the excesses, if any, of whatever process that the executive imple­ments. Once the National Assembly discovers that this anti-corruption pursuit is tilted unfairly, may be against a person or group of persons, they will query it. But as of now, we are not entertaining any fears. We will support it, even if that corruption probe will involve the National As­sembly. We just have to clean up this country be­cause corruption actually reduces our humanity to the barest level.”

The House spokesperson also noted that the decision of the House to review the funding of its activities was in submission to the wishes of the people.

His words: 

“I am here to reveal to you that as a result of the consistent outcry by Nigerians, who have been taking critical exception to the funding of the National Assembly, the House has decided to review the holistic fund­ing of its activities. This review will also result in right-sizing the funding of the various aspects of our activities. We have al­ready put a mechanism in motion to achieve that. It may also result in the dras­tic cut of our finances: be they salaries, allowances and running cost. We are conscious of our integrity; we will lead by example.
“What I can assure you is that we are submitting to the will of the people as a responsive and responsible legislative institution. We can no longer ignore the popular wishes of the Ni­gerians, who elected us in the first place. Even if the measures that we will con­sider, will inconvenience us, we will rather make that sacrifice and respect the views of the Nigerians once and for all.”

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