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Senator Bukola Saraki is making plans to get the salaries of senators reduced, but his plan seems to be hitting the rock. Consequently, he is in a confused state on how to push his plans through. It looks like his fellow senators are not willing to tow that line of salary reduction as majority of them went against it when it was presented for debate on the floor of the senate yesterday.  

Senator Bukola Saraki had hinted that he would make effort to reduce the salaries and allowances of senators and he had made this plan known when he first assumed the reigns of authority as senator president. There had been hues and cries about how much senators earned and Nigerians have complained that the salaries are too high considering the dire economic state of the country.  This had prompted the senate president to set up an ad-hoc committee for salary reduction of senators. According to him, the reduction became imperative considering the mood and financial state of the nation. However, he seems to be alone in this national mood consideration.

Earlier, the senate president made good his plan to get senators’ salaries reduced by constituting an ad-hoc committee and the goal of the committee is to provide a means towards downward review of the salaries of senators towards the end of further reducing government expenditures. The 10-man committee deliberated for several weeks and came up with certain recommendations. The chairman of the committee was a senator from Delta South PDP, Senator James Manager. Just last week, Thursday to be precise, the report and recommendations of the ad-hoc committee was submitted to the senate and the report suggested slight reduction in the salaries and allowances of the senators.

According to the report, there is suggestion of about 10% price cut in salaries of senators. The report was to be debated yesterday on the floor of the senate, with the senate president hoping for an adoption. It was however stood down for further legislative input and this came after some 2 hours of closed door deliberation on the issue by all the senators.  When sitting resumed yesterday after the closed door deliberation, Senator Bukola Saraki said there is agreement among the senators to step down the submitted report to enable further legislative input.  He did not give any reason why such decision was made by the senators.

Some senators who spoke to newsmen after the senate session on the condition of anonymity made known that the report was totally rejected by the majority and this was the reason it was never debated. During the closed door session, some of the senators called for cautious handling of the matter. There was however agreement among the senators that some allowances like wardrobe allowance should be removed. However, they insisted that some statutory emoluments should never be tampered with despite the call for reduction in allowances of senators by Nigerians and the dire financial state the country is in right now. The source said that the senators could not see reason why their salaries should be further reduced after the N150 billion for seven different organs of the National Assembly had been reduced to N120billion.

By Anthony Olawale Ojo