Nigerian Senators have described as untrue, media reports that they were paid jumbo allowances after their inauguration.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Dayo Adeyeye, on Sunday said while Nigerians erroneously believe that national legislators are well paid, the legislature is actually underfunded. He stressed that what a senator earns in Nigeria is less than five percent of what his American counterpart earns.
Sena. Adeyeye who stated this at Ise Ekiti, his home town during a thanksgiving service and reception in his honor at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Oraye, Ise Ekiti and Ise Ekiti Town Hall respectively assured that the 9th senate would soon engage the public to make them realize the true financial state of the Senate.
“People don’t appreciate the role of the legislature. That is why they feel legislators don’t deserve what they earn. I know that with time, when we begin to engage the Nigerian public and bring them to the full knowledge of the role of the legislature in this democracy, they will begin to see why the legislator should be given the enablement to perform their roles.
“Why is it that people don’t believe senators should have running cost and they attribute the running cost as their jumbo pay which is not the case? I want you to look at it and see the senator as a cost centre. If you compare what legislature gets to the executive, legislature will be earning infinitesimal.
“The last time I checked, the running cost of a senator in America is $4.6m in a year. We do not get up to five percent of that. The National Assembly is not over-funded. In fact, it is under-funded. We know the economy in which we are operating in, so everybody will have to adjust,” the senator added.
