Former Oyo State governor, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, has described the slashing of salaries by half by some current political office holders in the country as ‘mere window dressing’ not capable of sufficiently knocking off poverty in the land.
The Accord Party gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Ladoja stated this at the weekend in Ibadan, noting that there were so many unknown bogus allowances not captured in the so-called salary slash.
President Mohammadu Buhari, his Vice, Professor Osinbajo and some governors have announced cuts in their salaries in line with the current economic realities in the country.
According to him: “If for instance, members of the National Assembly earn N5million in a month, but their allowances per a quarter is N30million and they decide to cut their salary by half, what will that amount to?”
While calling for greater transparency in government, Ladoja called on the institution fixing salaries of political office holders to make it open to Nigerians to know all the allowances accruing to politicians with a view to appreciating their gestures.
“I see some of them as window dressing. If you say you cut the salaries of the National Assembly members, who knows how much they are earning? We only know what is written in the Revenue Allocation and Mobilisation Commission, but we don’t know what their allowances are. So, if their allowances are N30million and salary is N5million, and you say cut the salaries, what does that translate to?
“Unless they tell us their full package and say from the total package, I am cutting it into half, we may jot be able to appreciate the real import of the sacrifice. If not, just cutting my basic salaries into half, still remains window dressing. We have still not learnt our lessons in politics to be open, and at times, we take the public for a ride. If your allowances amount to N30million in a quarter and your annual salary is N5million, who is fooling whom?”
The Accord Party gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Ladoja stated this at the weekend in Ibadan, noting that there were so many unknown bogus allowances not captured in the so-called salary slash.
President Mohammadu Buhari, his Vice, Professor Osinbajo and some governors have announced cuts in their salaries in line with the current economic realities in the country.
According to him: “If for instance, members of the National Assembly earn N5million in a month, but their allowances per a quarter is N30million and they decide to cut their salary by half, what will that amount to?”
While calling for greater transparency in government, Ladoja called on the institution fixing salaries of political office holders to make it open to Nigerians to know all the allowances accruing to politicians with a view to appreciating their gestures.
“I see some of them as window dressing. If you say you cut the salaries of the National Assembly members, who knows how much they are earning? We only know what is written in the Revenue Allocation and Mobilisation Commission, but we don’t know what their allowances are. So, if their allowances are N30million and salary is N5million, and you say cut the salaries, what does that translate to?
“Unless they tell us their full package and say from the total package, I am cutting it into half, we may jot be able to appreciate the real import of the sacrifice. If not, just cutting my basic salaries into half, still remains window dressing. We have still not learnt our lessons in politics to be open, and at times, we take the public for a ride. If your allowances amount to N30million in a quarter and your annual salary is N5million, who is fooling whom?”
No comments:
Post a Comment