Of late, there has been a clamour for a reduction in the amount spent on the two houses of the National Assembly as Nigerian senators and members of the House of Representatives are among the highest paid parliamentarians in the world. Earlier this week, it was agreed that legislators will get a whopping N9bn (£29m) over the next four years in the form of jumbo-sized allowances.
However, Hon Lasun defended the payments, saying that the annual budgetary allocation to the National Assembly was not bloated. Yesterday, several legislators objected to moves to have their allowances slashed as clamours for belt tightening grip the country.
Hon Lasun said: “When you talk about salary, it has to be tied to something. Let me tell you this, for the last three years with the exception of 2015, the budget of National Assembly has been N150bn and that is exactly 2.67% of the total budget of the federation and so it is not overblown.
“So, I don’t know where people see this when they said it was 25% of the budget of the federation. People have suddenly forgotten and don’t know that there are 469 members in the National Assembly with each one having five aides paid from the N150bn with their technocrats."
According to Hon Lasun, the members of the National Assembly Commission also draw their salaries and allowances from the N150bn. He added that in the 2015 budget, the money budgeted for the National Assembly has been reduced to N120bn.
Despite this, the deputy speaker expressed the commitment of the eighth assembly to deliver on its legislative roles. he added that the leadership will call on development partners to sit down and see what it takes for National Assembly to be involved as an arm of government.
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