Senators reject pay cut, ready to make more sacrifices

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NIGERIA: SENATORS on Wednesday failed to agree on the proposed cut in their finances following sharp disagreements among them during deliberations.

The dispute forced the leadership to suspend further consideration of the report of the Finance Committee setup for the purpose of harmonizing the figures to be cut from its expenditure.

While some members of the Upper Chamber agreed that, in line with the philosophy of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, there is the need to cut their budget, some others kicked against such as unnecessary.

The Chairman of the Adhoc Committee on Media and Publicity, Senator Dino Melaye, who spoke with reporters after the meeting, explained that further actions on the report had been halted.

The Senate spokesperson explained at the end of the plenary session ‎that the legislators were ready to cut their pay.

This move, he said, would be in the interest of the nation’s development and the Senate had already indicated this desire in the 2015 Appropriation Bill.

“The Senate today, in closed-door session, discussed the report of the adhoc committee on finances of the senate,” he told reporters, adding: “After due deliberations by the senators, we came to the conclusion that since the budget of the Senate is not independent of the budget of the National Assembly, the budget of the House of Representatives is also inclusive.”

He added: “We have the management, we have the National Institute for Legislative Studies, we have even the Public Complaint Commission, the National Assembly Civil Service Commission, and over 3, 000 legislative aides, that are beneficiaries of the N120 billion annual budget.

“Therefore, we have agreed that we should consult amongst other arms that share the budget of the National Assembly, before we would draw a conclusion on the report.”

“So, the resolution is that we are going to interface with the House of Representatives so that we can be on the same page on the report as presented,” he further explained.  “This is the resolution of the Senate today in a closed-door session.”

Melaye explained that the lawmakers have the power to cut their pay as done by the President, the Vice President and some governors, but added: “It is the responsibility of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission to stipulate how much you would be paid.”

“But you can sacrifice, as a public officer, to say I am taking half of my salary, and then taking half back to the treasury,” he said, adding: “It means that it would be returned to the treasury, where it would be used for other developmental programmes.”

“We would make wider consultations with the House of Representatives on the report because we have one National Assembly and whatever is going to affect the Senate, the House of Representatives should also be carried along and I am sure that after this consultation we will get back to the public,” Melaye said.

He further said: “What Nigerians are expecting from the Senate, the Senate would meet.  The Senate, I repeat, deliberated on the report. The Senate is ready to make sacrifice for the purpose of developmental purposes and that had already been indicated even in the Appropriation Act 2015.”

“For the past five years, the budget of the National Assembly has always been N150 billion, but the 2015 Budget of the National Assembly is N120 billion,” Melaye said, while further stressing: “Already, there has been a reduction of N30 billion in the budget of the National Assembly.”