Obasempire reports that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the House of Representatives members for their decision to reduce their salaries by 50 percent for six months.
This development followed the approval on Thursday of an amendment to a motion proposed by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Okezie Kalu. The amendment requires lawmakers to forgo 50% of their N600,000 monthly salaries to aid Nigerians.
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The salary reduction is intended to support the federal government’s efforts to tackle the increasing cost of foodstuffs and ease the hardship faced by Nigerians.
The motion was approved and assigned to the committees on Humanitarian Affairs, Finance, and Budget for implementation.
With each member contributing N300,000 to a collective fund, the legislative body will provide N108 million monthly to the Federal Government, totaling N648 million over six months.
However, Atiku Abubakar criticized this decision on X, suggesting that lawmakers should cut their allowances rather than their salaries.
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Atiku argued that the country can no longer afford to borrow to finance governmental irresponsibility.
He wrote, “The demons are in allowances and not salaries. There’s too much wastage and prioritisation of non-essential expenditures. What we want is an across the board cut in expenses pork. We can no longer afford to borrow to fund irresponsibility in government.”
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