Workers are paid peanuts, senators earn luxury wages – Ex Senate Leader

A former Senate Leader, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army in the 9th National Assembly, Senator Ali Ndume, declared on Sunday that federal lawmakers and other highly placed public officers were earning luxury wages to the detriment of Nigerian masses.

He said Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Muhammadu Sanusi, had vindicated his position on the high cost of running a presidential democracy, which he insisted was no longer realistic.

Ndume stated this while reacting to the views expressed by Osinbajo and Sanusi during a webinar organised by the Emmanuel Chapel, themed, ‘Economic stability beyond COVID-19’, on Friday.

Sanusi had on the occasion, pointed out that the governance structure in the country had set it up for bankruptcy, and asked the Vice President what the current regime would do differently to address the perennial problem.

In his response, Osinbajo had said, “There is no question that we are dealing with large and expensive government, but as you know, given the current constitutional structure, those who would have to vote to reduce (the size of) government, especially to become part-time legislators, are the very legislators themselves.”

The senator, who represents Borno South Senatorial District, insisted that the current cost of governance was too much.

Ndume said the change from presidential democracy to parliamentary might be difficult for the current National Assembly to undertake because the present system was also in their favour. Punch