A
member of the House of Representatives has claimed that members of the
National Assembly are not the highest paid political office holders in
the country.
House of Representatives member, Mr Zakari Mohammed,
A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Zakari Mohammed, says
members of the National Assembly are not the highest paid political
office holders in Nigeria.
Mohammed, who represents Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency, also denied that the legislators pay was a guarded secret.
“The public perception of the National Assembly is in sharp
contrast to the reality on the ground as far as the lawmakers take-home
and other allowances are concerned,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Gure, Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara.
According to him, chief executives of federal agencies earn more salary than the National Assembly members.
“I can tell you that a Director-General of a Federal agency is
far and above better than a member of parliament in terms of what he
takes home in terms of pegs of office.
“Whatever a legislature does is within the limit of his allowances and the salary that he takes.
“Whatever we do is within the income, we don’t award contracts, we don’t execute projects.”
Mohammed, however, advocated regular interface between the National
Assembly and the public to address what he termed as current erroneous
perception on the matter.
“So for me, I believe it is a mindset and it is going to take
sometimes to get it off Nigerians heads, and I believe a regular
interface with the public will change the psyche with time.”
The lawmaker noted that the legislature had been painted in bad light since the inception of the fourth republic.
“The National Assembly since 1999 has been living with image
issue and of course I’m saying it without any fear of contradiction that
it was caused by the then President (Olusegun) Obasanjo.
“To me, it is matter of psyche. Nigeria must get it out of them
that legislature is being painted in the kind of light that it is not
supposed to be, because I have been a member of the house and know
exactly what they are doing”, he said.
The former House spokesman cautioned Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State against casting aspersions on the National Assembly.
He said the governor had taken the path of demonising the National
Assembly because of ‘‘individual inclination’’ and his grouse with some
lawmakers representing his state.
Mohammed described the governor’s recent outburst over the national Assembly budget as ‘‘hypocritical’’.
On his governorship ambition in 2019, the former commissioner said that he had the right credentials for the position.
He however acknowledged that Senate President, Bukola Saraki would have the last say as to “who becomes what” in Kwara.
According to him, Saraki is the head of the existing political structure in the state.
“I want to say we have a leadership in Kwara, we have a
pattern, we have a tradition, a practice through which leaders or
through those who govern us emerge.
“So as a member of that political family, I believe that when
the time comes, the appropriate measure would be applied and at the end
of the day the verdict of the leader will definitely be what we will
abide by,” he said.
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