21st June, 2010
The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress has decried the increasing penchant of the members of the National Assembly to increase their salaries and allowances even when Nigerians are going through their worst ever period in the history of the country. The party warned that the members of the National Assembly are sparking off a mass revolt should it continue treating state funds as treasury coves for the satiation of the greed of their members.
In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the AC, Joe Igbokwe, Lagos AC says it is grossly immoral and smacks of insensitivity for the National Assembly members to ceaselessly indulge in increment of salaries and all other forms of entitlements that are aimed at self enrichment while Nigerians wallow in unending want and penury. It warns the National Assembly and their counterparts in the executive not to believe that Nigerians are fools that will indulge these selfish excesses while things get increasingly tough for them.
“We are very surprised that the members of the National Assembly are considering another salary increment at this time of the nation’s history when ceaseless poverty ravages Nigerians. We are even more surprised that the members of the National Assembly have devised various ways through which they amass so much wealth when Nigerians are dying from preventable afflictions. We wonder what reasoning informed this latest crave to increase the salaries and allowances of National Assembly members if not the thinking that Nigerians are a conquered people that cannot raise decent protests to such unending exploitations.
“We are saddened that members of the executive pander to these excessive rip offs because they get their corrupt entitlements equally approved in such binge of exploitation. We would have thought that the executive would have mobilized Nigerians to reject such excessive rip off but we often find the executive collaborating in such unholy bazaar that had been made an integral part of the present dysfunctional democracy we had been saddled with.
“What bothers Lagos AC most is that Nigerian workers have been living with a meager wage for a very long time now and have been demanding for a living wage to which the members of the National Assembly have turned deaf ears. Worse still is the fact that majority of Nigerians are dying in excruciating poverty while the members of the National Assembly have occupied themselves mostly by salary increment and inventing all manners of allowances to shortchange the country. We see this as totally unacceptable and we charge Nigerians to engage in peaceful moves to call this national assembly to order.
“What makes this unending padding of benefits for the members of the National Assembly most annoying is that they have not really imputed to the growth and progress of the country through quality bills enacted into law for the betterment of the citizenry. What faces us is the rat race between the members of the House of Representatives and members of the Senate to enrich themselves through several means. This is unacceptable to us, as we know they are not acceptable to the long suffering Nigerians.
“We charge on Nigerians to rise up and demonstrate their potency in the fight for their collective survival. They should demand probity from our so-called federal legislators and must resist the consistent attempt by the members of the National Assembly to rob them for their selfish enrichment.â€