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Honourable Sani Zoro of the House of Representatives has said the Honourables are ready to listen to Nigerians regarding the reduction of the earnings of the National Assembly members. He said in response to the outcry of Nigerians, who have been taking critical exemption to the funding of the National Assembly, they have decided to review the funding of the activities of its members.

He said this review will also result in right-sizing and the funding of various aspects of their activities. He said they have already put a mechanism in motion to achieve that and it will also result in drastic cuts of the Representatives'  finances, including salaries, allowances and running costs.

In his words: "What I can assure you is that we are submitting to the will of the people as a responsive and responsible legislative institution. We can no longer ignore the popular observations and wishes of the people who elected us in the first place. Even if the measures we consider will inconvenience us, we would rather do it and respect the views of Nigerians. By the grace of God, the House of Representatives will be credited with addressing these issues of persistent agitations against our finances."

He went further to say the House under the speakership of Hon. Yakubu Dogara, has adopted a legislative roadmap that will guide their conducts and activities.

"In the two weeks that we deliberated on it, most members agreed that we need to change. You know the House of Representatives is a hub of diversified competencies. With 360 members, all sorts of professional bodies and practitioners are represented there. We have a concentration of knowledge at our advantage.

"So, we considered the agitation and empanelled an independent technical committee made of members of the civil society (led by Dr Clement Nwankwo) to blueprint funding of activities of the House. From purchase of newspapers to the conduct of public hearings and oversights, we expect the committee to evaluate how we do things.

"They can, for example, ask whether or not members should read newspapers to be enlightened. If they say yes, they can then determine if the four papers we currently receive are enough or too much. They can scale the papers to two and say the treasury should expend not more than N600 per day on each member. If that is their suggestion, we will accept it."

When asked whether Legislature should be run on part time basis, he said Nigerians have a misunderstanding of how the legislative arm works. He said many people think that all they do is to debate and return to their constituencies. He said things are not like that at all.

"What most people are aware we do is representation through motions in open plenary. That is what is televised every time and many people think that is all we do. But we also do committee work where all the motions generated at open plenary are referred to through the Standing Committee for implementation or further actions. That takes a lot of our time and this business is never in public purview. Then, there is the oversight function, which involves going round the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure they compile with the Appropriation Acts approved for them."