‘N150bn allocation for lawmakers not too much,’ Deputy Speaker says

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yusuf Lasun has said that the N150 billion allocated to the National Assembly in Nigeria’s budget is not too much.

The Deputy Speaker further said, when answering questions from journalists on the lawmakers’ hefty allowances, that the Assembly budget is only 2.67 percent of the national budget.

“When you talk about salary it has to be tied to something. Let me tell you this, for the last three years with the exception of 2015, the budget of National Assembly has been N150 billion and that is exactly 2.67 percent of the total budget of the federation, so I don’t know where people see this when they said it was 25 percent of the budget of the federation,” Lasun said.

“The budget of the National Assembly is 2.67 percent of the budget of the federation and so it is not overblown. People have suddenly forgotten and don’t know that here are 469 members in the National Assembly with each one having five aides, paid from the N150 billion with their technocrats. We have National Assembly commission all of them draw their salaries and allowances from the N150 billion,” he added.

“So when people talk, they say it’s only the House of Reps members and the Senators that collect the N150 billion. But they forget that in the 2015 budget, the money was reduced to N120 billion and so when you do the calculation,” Lasun said.

Lasun was elected Deputy Speaker on Tuesday, June 9, 2015, during the inauguration of the 8 Assembly.