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Nigerian Senators earn more than the US President – Oyebola

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-Elected public officers’ salary and allowances should be reduced by 90%.

-This will help reduce the level of poverty among the citizens of the country.

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Chief Areoye Oyebola, initiator and chairman of the Movement for Nigeria’s Total Transformation, has slammed the huge salary and allowances lawmakers in Nigeria receive amidst the level of poverty in the country, and therefore called for the downward review of their salaries and allowances.

Oyebola, also accused the lawmakers of been unyielding to several calls, including the one from the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN)  for them to reduce their emoluments.

He made reference to a publication, tagged, “Grave Issues Nigeria Must Tackle,” in which he raised certain points about the Nigerian nation which needed to be looked into urgently.

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According to him, what the President of the United States of America as well as the Prime Minister of Britain earns were far below what a Nigerian lawmaker takes home.

He had said, “It is also strange, unthinkable and very disheartening that a senator, not minding the grinding poverty of Nigerians, earns $1.7m a year, which is far higher than the $400,000 yearly income of the United States’ President, whose stupendous country is the richest in the world. Even a member of the House of Representatives also earns more than the American President. What a tragic and pathetic situation!

“Worse still, each of our National Assembly members earns more than the British Prime Minister, while the pay of a member of Ghana’s unicameral legislature is a very small fraction of our House of Representatives’ member jumbo pay of more than N10m in a month, let alone the monumental quarterly allowances that have led to serious public outcry.

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“The multi-million naira earned by the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives even worse, more outrageous and mind-boggling.”

 

Oyebola advised that the only way to sanitize Nigeria’s electoral system so as not to make it a do-or-die affair, is to effect a 90 per cent cut in the earnings of Nigerian elected public officials, saying with that they would still be richer than their counterparts in the US and the UK.

He said, “As suggested below, for the National Assembly, the President, ministers, state governors, state legislators, chairmen of local governments and councillors should have their pay and allowances reduced to 10 per cent of their present earnings.”

“If effected, each senator’s present earnings of N15m a month will be reduced to N1.5m or N18m a year. A similar 90 per cent reduction should be effected from the pay of members of the House of Representatives.”