Lawmakers’ jumbo pay, criminal – DFPF

Posted by admin Headlines, Legislature Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

The Democratic Front for Peoples Federation, a political party formed by the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has described the fat salaries and allowances paid to the members of the National Assembly as criminal.

The South-South Deputy National Chairman of the party, Mr. James Ebri, in a statement made available to our correspondent in Minna on Tuesday said salaries and allowances of lawmakers should not be more than twice the amount earned by the highest paid civil servant in the country.

The statement quoted Ebri as making the remarks while inaugurating the Cross River State chapter of the party in Calabar.

He said, “It is criminal for people to allocate so much of public funds to themselves without regard for the fate of fellow Nigerians. Salaries and allowances of public officers should not be more than twice the amount earned by the highest-paid civil servant”.

To make political offices less attractive, he called for new salary structures that should be designed to look like those of the civil servants.

This, he suggested, would make political offices to be service oriented instead of being a drain pipe of the country’s resources.

Ebri also commended the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, for mustering courage to raise the alarm of the jumbo pay of the national legislators.

While reacting to the chances of the party in the forthcoming elections, he said DFPF had built its structure to enable it field credible candidates for various political offices, adding that offices of the party had been established in all the states of the South-South.

He maintained that “The National Chairman of the Party, Prof. Wole Soyinka, is committed to giving Nigerians a credible alternative”.

He called on Nigerians to embrace positive change insisting that “if the current looting of our economy is allowed to continue then this country will soon be ground to a halt”.

He expressed confidence on the Prof. Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct a free, fair and credible election in 2011.

“If all that INEC has put in place is executed as planned, we are going to see an election that will produce true representatives of the people. But INEC should ensure that those caught trying to rig the elections in whatever form should be prosecuted and jailed”, he said.

He said that with the level of preparedness of DFPF, the party would win seats in the National Assembly, houses of assemblies and at least one governorship seat.wp_posts