The President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, disclosed his monthly salary as Chairman of the National Assembly.
He said he earns N750,000 while other National Assembly members earn “what is their salary.”
His explanation, however, excludes other allowances assigned to lawmakers.
Mr Lawan spoke at the Abuja Senators Forum on Tuesday.
He had pledged that the ninth Senate would be open so that Nigerians would understand what the lawmakers are doing.
“The 9th National Assembly is going to be open so Nigerians will know what we are doing. I never believe there is anything called jumbo pay to the National Assembly. The National Assembly members receive what is their salary. I receive N750,000 as my salary.
“My office needs to be properly funded and therefore I cannot conduct my oversight without some backing. Nigerians need to understand this. We need to continue relating with Nigerians because they deserve to be explained to,” he said.
He believes that the National Assembly requires adequate financing “because the legislature is so critical in any national development.”
The legislators further ensured that the ninth Senate would be determined to guarantee that the annual budget would be passed within three months.
“We believe this is achievable and doable. We will work with the executive to present the appropriation bill in time and maybe at the end of September, the National Assembly will sit and work with the MDAs within a specified time frame and process the budget and before we leave for Christmas by December. We will pass the budget.
“We must ensure that this country moves forward because the economy of Nigeria depends on public expenditure. We want to see a budget process that starts and ends within three months that ends December so we go back to January to December cycle,” he said.
One of the many appeals made to past assembly legislators was transparency in the budget of the National Assembly.
Many activists and organizations of the Civil Society have overtime, questioned the enormous allowances assigned to lawmakers because they refused to make their budget information public.
One such allowance that caused controversy in the eight Senate was the N13.5 million that was paid monthly to senators as ‘running cost’.
Mr Lawal declined to talk on running cost specifically on Tuesday, an indication that the practice will continue under him.
Another innovation that characterized past assemblies was the budget delay as well as the padding of the budget. Previous assemblies spent over three months passing the annual budget and the National Assembly gave excuses on several occasions for such delays as late submission, inability of MDAs to appear before committees, supervisory functions among others.
However, Mr Lawan encouraged Nigerians to expect the ninth assembly to deliver very excellent results.
