Democracy Is Expensive, Nigerians Should Give Their Legislatures Breathing Space – Dogara

A former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has come out to say that lawmakers’ monthly earnings can not last them for more than three days.

He recently had his say while speaking at the first-ever legislative open week of the House in Abuja, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, his monthly salary was less than N400,000 during his time as a Rep member while his monthly allowance as a presiding officer was N25 million, and he never once took money out of his allowance account because it was solely used to cater to the needs of constituents.

He added that Nigerians need to legislatures breathing space and know that their narrative is not true about members’ pay.

His words, “While I was a Speaker, my salary was less than N400,000. I don’t know if it has been increased now. My total impress was N25 million, and I told my accountant to open a separate account for the impress, and I never for 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 it. 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.”