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Fred Itua, Abuja
There is a growing disquiet in the National Assembly over delayed payment of certain allowances and other remunerations to senators.
Daily Sun gathered that the senators’ allowances ought to have been paid before their recent holiday, but the process was stalled due to beureaucratic bottlenecks at the National Assembly.
“Senators are protesting the delay and have taken their grievances to the president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, to prevail on the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori to approve the payment.
“Besides their usual allowances and basic salaries, senators are usually paid contingency allowances to enable them travel for summer holidays and meet other financial demands during the long break,” the source said.
National Assembly is on first line charge. As soon as annual budgets are passed and signed into law by the president, the entire approved budget is paid into the account of the National Assembly bureaucracy.
However, between 2015- 2019 delays in the payment of salaries and allowances to legislators has persisted leading to protests in some instances.
A senator who spoke with Daily Sun said: “I am hoping that we will are able to settle these issues and move on. It is unfair not to pay senators what is legitimately their right; it is uncalled for and it has to stop.
“We ran for elections recently and spent money.We have families and there are other needs to attend to. If you don’t pay these contingency allowances, do you expect us to suffer during the long break?” queried the senator
Besides the delay in the payment of contingency allowances that has unsettled the leadership of the senate, lawmakers are also angered that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed to honour his pledge to host them.
Although the president has met with senators elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), he is yet to host the entire Senate, especially members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The source who spoke to Daily Sun in confidence, said part of the deal the leadership of the Senate had with President Buhari before the confirmation of ministerial nominees was to host them in appreciation of their support.
The source said almost two months after the conclusion of the exercise, no meeting has been fixed by the presidency and that Lawan who brokered the deal is under pressure to prevail on President Buhari to honour his commitment.
There are fears that the inability of Lawan to get members to remain patient with Buhari may affect the planned consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), ahead of the presentation of the 2020 budget later in the month.
“We didn’t beg for a meeting with President Buhari. We were told to support and confirm ministerial nominees from the president. We agreed with the promise that they will reciprocate the gesture. It has not happen. Let’s see how we all resolve these issues.”
Spokesman of the Senate, Adedayo Adeyeye, did not pick several phone calls made to him to react to the disquiet in the senate.
