After Senate President, Bukola Saraki first denied the amount senators allegedly get for their wardrobe allowance; the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara , has now claimed he is not aware of the jumbo salaries being earned by legislators.
Dogara said this when he spoke with journalists shortly after paying a courtesy visit to Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State.
He told newsmen that “when I hear about jumbo pay for legislators I get confused.
“The issue of salary is quite clear because we don’t fix our salaries; it is the responsibility of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission to do that.
“Any Nigerian that wants the information can take the benefit of the Freedom of Information Act to request for this information from the commission.
“I do know that our salary is not in the region of N1 million per month.’’
The speaker, however, said he is aware of discussions that relate to the allowances being paid to members.
He said the House of Representatives is ready to put the matter on the front burner as soon as it settles down for work.
According to him, the lower chamber of the National Assembly will conduct a legislative needs assessment.
Dogara said the assessment will be conducted by competent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in conjunction with development partners, pointing out that Nigerians will then know the true status of things in the National Assembly.
He said that his leadership of the green chamber will be fair and just in the distribution of committees to members.
The speaker said that the House has in the past operated as one family and his administration is willing to keep the tradition.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that from zonal level, there is fairness in whatever we do there up to the state level.
“And once we achieve that, we are 100 per cent guaranteed that there will be stability even though politics is all about resolving conflicts.
“Conflicts arise as a result of human imperfection; we will never run away from conflicts but we will always rise above conflicts,” he said.