Reps don’t earn jumbo pay, says Speaker Dogara

•Dogara: Speaker, House of Representatives

The Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara said he was not aware of the alleged jumbo salaries being earned by legislators.

Dogara said this when he spoke with newsmen shortly after paying a courtesy visit to Gov. 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 was aware of discussions that relate to the allowances being paid to members.

He said the House of Representatives was ready to put the matter on the front burner as soon as it settled down for work.

According to him, the lower chamber of the National Assembly will conduct a legislative needs assessment.

Dogara said the assessment would be conducted by competent Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), in conjunction with development partners, pointing out that Nigerians would then know the true status of things in the National Assembly.

He said that his leadership of the green chamber would be fair and just in the distribution of committees to members.

The speaker said that the House had in the past operated as one family and his administration was 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.’’

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