Senate Vows to Reduce Lawmakers’ Salaries

The Senate has disclosed that the salaries and allowances of lawmakers will be reduced in line with the existing economic realities facing the country. The chairman, Senate adhoc committee on information, Senator Dino Melaye, who made this disclosure yesterday when addressing newsmen, ‎said the committee saddled with the responsibility of reviewing the salaries of lawmakers had submitted its report.

According him, there was the need to reduce the allowances of lawmakers in response to the directives of the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, who had set up a finance committee to review the allowance of Senators. He said the senators had made a progressive reduction in their salaries as the Senate president had insisted they must all make sacrifices for the nation.


“The Senate president said we must sacrifice, as we cannot carry out proper oversight of the MDAs (ministries, departments and agencies) if we have not made proper sacrifice,” he said, asserting that the 8th Senate would be a responsible one.

Senator Melaye also stated that the era of government and its agencies not adhering to the resolutions of the Senate was over as the upper house will set up a ‎re-evaluation and monitoring committee to monitor and track the progress of resolutions made by the Senate to ensure there is strict compliance and apply sanctions accordingly when appropriate.

He further explained that there is no controversy over the Senate chief whip as the South West caucus of the APC was yet to submit the name of its candidate, adding that the Senate is now focused on developmental issues.

He added that the committee saddled with the responsibility of rolling out the legislative agenda of the 8th Senate would soon submit its report and that the report would pilot the affairs of the 8th Senate

“The objective of this Senate is to fight and curb corruption, and the Senate president has sounded a note of warning that the anti-corruption crusade will be carried out in all the committees and any Senator found wanting will be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Melaye said. (Leadership)