2011: National Assembly members move to shore up finances- Independent Newspapers

Saturday, April 17, 2010

As the 2011 general election inches nearer, there are indications that members of the National Assembly (NASS), are desperately devising ways of grabbing whatever amount of money they can lay their hands on to prosecute their return.

One of the strategies being adopted is to raise their entitlements by more than 50 per cent once they return from recess on Tuesday.

It was learnt that already the least which an ordinary floor member of the House of Representatives collects quarterly is around N27 million, while the principal officers’ receive more than double of the amount.

Before they went on recess, sources said they were already angling for increment to N45 million quarterly, as the least a member should collect while the principal officers’ might hit the rooftop.

At the Senate on the other hand, it was gathered that the least senators part with quarterly is in the range of N45 million but they want this to be upped to around N100 million.

A source said they were in this financial desperation so as to have enough in their war chest to prosecute the political battles come 2011.

Not even the principal officers of both Chambers could get the lawmakers to change their stance. This paper learnt that the members at different closed-door sessions threatened to move against their leaders if they do not accent to their request.

Our source, however, maintained that the actions of the NASS members has far reaching negative implications on the NASS as every infrastructure at the complex might collapse out of lack of maintenance while operational activities of the staff could also be greatly affected.

“They want to collapse everything and they are doing it because we are approaching election year. They want to get enough (money) for the election; they don’t want to leave anything behind,” the source, who craved anonymity, lamented.

The source also stated that the deal is as good as being done because all of them seem to be working in the same direction and hatching the same game plan, all which are geared towards their return to the NASS.

Since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), released a tentative election timetable weeks ago fixing the polls for either January or April the tempo of political activities in the country has increased, as politicians position and strategise for the elections.

*By Victor Ebimomi, News Editor,