Thread by @JeffOkoroafor

Senator Ali Ndume said on @channelstv, that the salaries of lawmakers in Nigeria have no effect on the economy whatsoever. That how can Nigerians be complaining of Senators' salary in a budget of N13tn?

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Ndume didn't stop there, he challenged us, said we should go and check if any lawmaker is wealthy after leaving the National Assembly either as a Senator or an Honourable member.

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To further buttress his point and consolidate his narrative, Ndume said he joined the NASS in 2003 and since then, his lifestyle(wealth to be specific), has not changed.

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To put things into perspective; the economy of America, which is almost 60 times larger than Nigeria pays members of its Congress less than half of the earnings of their Nigerian counterparts, @NGRSenate.

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It didn't occur to Senator Ndume that a significant part of the billions they spend annually could be reinvested into income-generating infrastructure or public services particularly in the power, transport and education sectors which will benefit millions of Nigeria.

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Did Senator Ndume not know that the capital expenditure for both health and education in 2020 is about N25 billion less than the annual salaries of the National Assembly?

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#MondayMood
#RedefineNigeria
#LekkiMassacre

Countries like Singapore (which has the highest paid legislators in the world), justified theirs on the basis of attracting the best hands to public office. Same cannot be said for our lawmakers - @NGRSenate and @HouseNGR alike.

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In Nigeria, the academic qualification for admittance into the @NGRSenate, is a "secondary school certificate", mind you, some Senators have questionable secondary school certificate yet they are there, and receiving unbelievable remuneration.

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On the basis of making laws, their fat salaries cannot be justified. From findings, only about 270 bills were passed by the @NGRSenate between 2015 & 2019 whereas in the US, 442 laws were passed by Congress between January 2017 and January 2019 alone.

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If Ndume cared about this country, he'd know that the exorbitant and unnecessary public spending is a luxury Nigeria cannot afford right now, particularly in view of the country's revenue crisis, rising debt profile, and its deficit in infrastructure.

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Healthcare budget for 2021 averaged about N2,735 per Nigerian, for a year. While Ndume and his colleagues receives N1.5mn every day for office expenses yet he has the guts to say their take home pay has no effect on the country's economy?

I don't blame him, really.

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