Lincoln Shevy - Shine (EP)
Former speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara has revealed that his monthly salary was N400,000 which could not last more than three days.
He made this known on Wednesday, July 3 while speaking at the Open Week of the House of Representatives in Abuja.
According to him, he received N25 million as monthly allowance as the speaker of the lower legislative chamber.
Dogara also noted that the misconception of huge salaries and allowances by Nigerians has given the National Assembly a negative image where they are called thieves even at public fora.
He said:
“While I was Speaker, my salary was less than N400,000. I don’t know if it has been increased now. My total imprest was N25 million and I told my accountant to open a separate account for the imprest and I never once took any money out of that account. Everything that came into that account was used to cater to the needs of constituents.
“My accountant complained of the level of demand on the account and I told him if the money there is finished, borrow, when money comes, you return it to where you had taken money from.
“I am saying this so Nigerians will give their legislatures breathing space and know that the narrative is not true about members’ pay. We all know that democracy is expensive and if we think that it is too expensive, maybe we should ask our political scientists to develop for us a local model that will be cheaper for us.”
