The Senate, on Sunday, challenged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to provide evidence that members of the National Assembly, determined what they currently earn as salaries and allowances.
The red chamber through its spokesperson, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, in a statement in Abuja, clarified that the senators receive only the salary allocated constitutionally by the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC).
Adaramodu explained that the federal lawmakers did not implement the constituency projects contrary to popular beliefs in some quarters.
Obasanjo, who was president between 1999 and 2007, had Friday in Abeokuta, while receiving in audience, six members of the House of Representatives, who visited him, chided the federal lawmakers for fixing their salaries and emoluments.
The House of Representatives members led by Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere, were the co-sponsors of the bill on a single six-year term for president and governors, and power rotation between the North and the South.
During the parley, Obasanjo said, “In your own case, with all due respect, you’re not supposed to fix your salaries. But you decide what you pay yourself, the allowances that you give yourselves (included) newspaper allowances.
“You give yourselves all sorts of things, and you know it is not right. It is immoral, (yet) you are doing it, the Senate is doing it, and you are beating your chests about it. In some cases, the executive gives you what you’re not entitled to. You all got N200 million (each).”
However the Senate expressed shock over Obasanjo’s statement, which it described as hypocritical and noted that there was no way its members could determine their wages and allowances.
Part of the statement read: “The Nigerian Senate is petrified by the tattling story of determining its own salaries and receiving a special fiscal package from the Presidency.
“This sordid and telltale assertion was amplified during a visit of a group of House of Representatives members to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“To straighten the records, the Senate receives only the salary allocated constitutionally by the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Allocation Commission. We challenge anyone who is privileged, either in qualified or absolute position to bring forth any contrary fact.
“The Senators or the National Assembly do not and cannot fix their salaries. Any suggestions contrary is uncharitable and satanic. It’s only an attempt to crucify the legislature by the centurions of political hypocrisy.”
Sunday Aborisade
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