Reps Ready For Salary Cut, Declare Support For Anti-graft War

Posted by George on Mon 24th Aug, 2015 - tori.ng

The members of the House of Representatives have given President Muhammadu Buhari a boost in his morale by accepting to cut their salaries in order to cut down the cost of governance and also support him on his anti-graft war.

According to the Vanguard, President Muhammadu Muhammadu Buhari has been given the required backing on his anti-graft campaign by the House of Representatives and they have also accepted a pay-cut in order to tackle the problems of the high cost of governance in Nigeria. This was revealed by the Chairman, Ad-hoc Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Mohammed Sani Zorro in Lagos yesterday, 23rd of August.

According to him, all the honourables decided to speak in one voice irrespective of their party affiliations to support Buhari. They have also voluntered to assist the president in necessary legislative backing to actualize the agenda.

Zorro, who represents Gumel/Gagarawa/Mai Gatari/Sule Tankarkar Federal Constituency of Jigawa State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the need to streamline the funding of the House’s activities in line with best practices across the world and Nigeria’s economic fortunes was the reason the Reps set up the Dr Clement Nwankwo Committee.

“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."

Promising Nigerians a new wave of transparency in the conduct of affairs in the House, Zorro, a former national chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said the lawmakers will abide by whatever recommendations the Nwankwo committee makes as regards oversight function allowance, sitting allowance, constituency allowance and all aspects of funding of the House of Representatives.

On whether the lawmakers can take salary cut, Zorro, who commended President Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and some governors, who have elected to have their salaries cut by 50 per cent, said they are willing to toe the same path because “we are conscious of our integrity. We want to live by example.”

Zorro further added that, “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 Nigerian people 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 Nigerian people once and for all.”