Senator Adeyeye says National Assembly is underfunded

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Dayo Adeyeye (Ekiti South - APC), believes that the National Assembly is underfunded, contrary to the sentiment of the Nigerian public.

Many Nigerians believe that lawmakers earn too much at the detriment of the country whose economy and citizens continue to struggle.

A revelation last year that senators receive N13.5 million monthly as "running cost" alongside a N750,000 consolidated salary as well as other allowances led to widespread condemnation of the lawmakers in the National Assembly.

However, Senator Adeyeye has dismissed the outrage over lawmaker's salaries and allowances as exaggerated.

While speaking during a thanksgiving service in Ekiti on July 7, 2019, the lawmaker said the running costs are not the same as salaries.

He said the monthly running cost enables lawmakers to run their offices, and should not be considered jumbo pay.

He said, "People don't appreciate the role of the legislature. That is why they feel legislators don't deserve what they earn. I know that with time, when we begin to engage the Nigerian public and bring them to the full knowledge of the role of the legislature in this democracy, they will begin to see why the legislator should be given the enablement to perform their roles.

"Why is it that people don't believe senators should have running cost and they attribute the running cost as their jumbo pay which is not the case?

"I want you to look at it and see the senator as a cost centre. If you compare what legislature gets to the executive, legislature will be earning infinitesimal.

"The last time I checked, the running cost of a senator in America is $4.6m in a year. We do not get up to five per cent of that."

Adeyeye also noted that contrary to the popular perception that the National Assembly is over-funded, it is actually underfunded.

"We know the economy in which we are operating in, so everybody will have to adjust," he said.