By Kingston Magare
Members of the House of Representatives Thursday pledged to donate 50 percent of their salary for six months to help the President Bola Tinubu address the rising cost of living in the country.
The lawmakers arrived at the decision during a plenary session in which they discussed the hardship facing Nigerians across the country.
During the discussions, deputy speaker Benjamin Kalu made a passionate pleas for his colleagues to make the sacrifice. This followed a motion by Hon. Isiaka Ayokunle calling on organisers of a proposed nationwide protest to jettison the plan.
“This government is doing its best but one year is not enough to address the challenges of this country. I want to plead with our colleagues to sacrifice 50 per cent for a period of six months,” Hon. Kalu said.
“Our salary is N600,000 a month. I want to plead that we let go of 50 per cent of our salary for a period of six months,” Kalu said.
Going by calculations the lawmakers with each giving up N300,000 will raise N108m monthly and N648m in six months.
The motion was adopted and referred to the committees on Humanitarian Affairs, Finance and Budget for compliance.
