A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has revealed that he received N25 million as a monthly allowance when he was a presiding officer.
Dogara made this known while speaking on Wednesday in Abuja at the Open Week of the House of Representatives.
He further revealed that, as Speaker of the House, he earned N400,000 as a monthly salary.
He stressed that the earnings of members of the National Assembly have been on the front burner for a while, even though their allowances cannot last them for more than three days.
The former lawmaker 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.
Dogara noted: “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 impress 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.”
Dogara believed that the time had come for the National Assembly to throw open its finances to dispel the insinuation that the legislators were taking a huge amount of money monthly.