Following the termination of the fuel subsidy and the country’s current economic position, members of the House of Representatives are requesting an increase in their wages and allowances.
According to the Agency of Nigeria, the demand was the result of a meeting of MPs on July 11 following an executive session during plenary.
According to NAN, the House went into executive session to defuse tensions caused by member concerns about salaries and allowances.
The members had also sought from the Speaker, Rep. Tajudeen Abass, the reason for the delay in payment of their salaries and allowances, which had forced some of them to take out loans.
However, one of the parliamentarians who attended the meeting but requested anonymity since he was not entitled to comment on the conclusion of the executive session denied the rumour.
In response to the rumours, the congressman stated that they just warned the speaker that their pay and benefits could no longer keep up with the demands of their position and that a reassessment was required.
“So nobody talked about money or whether we were paid or not,” the lawmaker explained.
According to the source, their request was prompted by the existing economic realities, which have resulted in hardship and a surge in the price of products and services in the country.
The member stated that the speaker made no promises regarding the revision of their wages and allowances because such a demand could only be fulfilled in the budget following the appropriate process.
According to the legislator, the speaker informed his colleagues that their wages and allowances were not included in the 2023 budget due to a reassessment of their salaries and allowances.
According to the source, the speaker could not have promised anything and said that “we all know the situation in the country; we are all facing the same problem.”
Meanwhile, to mitigate the impact of the loss of gasoline subsidies, President Bola Tinubu submitted a letter to the House of Representatives on July 12 requesting an amendment to the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act.
The amendment provides N500 billion for the supply of palliatives to Nigerians.
Tinubu stated in the letter that the request was required to enable the government to provide palliatives for Nigerians to mitigate the effects of the cessation of fuel subsidies.
Teejanyy (
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