Hardship: Why we haven’t fulfilled promise to donate half salaries – Reps

The House of Representatives has explained why it is yet to donate half of its members’ salaries as promised.

In July, members of the House agreed to cut their salaries by 50 percent for six months as part of their solidarity and sacrifice to support the economic hardship and hunger Nigerians are going through at the moment.

This followed the adoption of an amendment to a motion’s prayer moved by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, on the need for lawmakers to sacrifice 50% of their N600,000 monthly salaries to support Nigerians in view of the hardship.

In a statement on Wednesday,  Rotimi Akin, spokesperson of the lower chamber of the National Assembly, reaffirmed the commitment of the House to the 50 per cent deduction in their salary.

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“We acknowledge and regret that this resolution was not implemented by the bureaucracy as intended for the month of July.

“Resolutions of the House are ratified when the votes and proceedings of plenary are adopted on the next legislative day. Consequently, the bureaucracy was only formally instructed on July 23,” the spokesperson said.

According to him, the delay in the implementation was due to necessary administrative procedures and coordination with financial institutions.

He added that instructions for adjusting salaries had since been issued and would be enforced moving forward to ensure its pledge is fully realised.

“There is nothing to investigate, as some media houses reported, as the House’s position on this matter had been provided to some journalists who had reached out for clarification.”

While calling for patience, he assured the House of its steadfast adherence to its pledge and sustained efforts to earn the trust and confidence of all Nigerians.

He also clarified that each member of the House takes N600,000 as monthly salary against N900,000, which is being speculated.

“The House of Representatives has been inundated by some media outlets reporting claims of discrepancies in the salaries of members, suggesting that we received 100 per cent of our July salaries. The report claimed that our salary amounted to N936,979.

“We wish to clarify that the actual monthly salary for members is N600,000, after deductions for advances such as housing, which are paid at the commencement of the tenure,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson said the House member who displayed his salary on a TV programme was an exceptional case because he assumed office through a court decision many months after the onboarding process was concluded.