ABUJA – DEPUTY Speaker of House of
Representatives, Hon. Lasun Yussuf, yesterday
said that there will be no amount of pressure that
would make him resign his position as the Deputy
Speaker.

Fielding question from journalists in Abuja
yesterday, on the alleged pressure on him to step
down from his position by some All Progressives
Congress, APC, Chieftains, following the
controversy trailing the election of the presiding
officers of the 8th assembly, Hon. Yussuf said his
election followed due process, hence, there was
no way he would ever contemplate to resign.
Some of the APC Chieftains it was gathered had
wanted him to step down for Hon. Femi
Gbajabiamila, the choice of the party who had lost
the Speakership seat to Hon. Dogara for the
Deputy position.

Describing the alleged pressure to resign as
speculations, he said, “why will I resign, I went
through an election.”

He also explained that the speculation that the
National Assembly takes a good chunk of the
national budget, was unfounded, noting that out
of the previous budgetary allocation of N150
billion, only N120 billion was budgeted in the 2015
appropriation.

Besides, he said that from the budget, the aides
of the Senators and House of Representatives
members, technocrats and their staff as well as
the staff of the National Assembly Commission are
paid.

He said, “when you talk about salary, it has to be
tied to something. Let me tell you this, for the
last three years with the exception of 2015, the
budget of the national Assembly has been N150
billion and that is exactly 2.67 percent of the
total budget of the federation.

“So, I don’t know where people see this to say it
is 25 percent of the budget of the National
Assembly. The budget of the National Assembly is
2.6 percent of the entire budget of the country
and so it is not overblown.

“And people have forgotten too that there are
469 members of the National Assembly with each
of the member with five aides that would be paid
from the N150 billion.

“We have the National Assembly technocrats and
their staffers and the National Assembly
commission – all of them earn their salaries and
allowances from these N150 billion.

“So, when people talk they always think that it is
the House of Representatives members and
senators that collect the N150 billion. And again
don’t forget that for 2015 budget, the money has
been reduced to N120 billion.

“So, when you do the calculation, that is why the
Dogara speakership in the last one week has
repeatedly said, he is going to do a needs
assessment, that he is going to engage
development partners to actually sit down and see
what it takes for the national Assembly to be run
as an arm of government.

“And you might be surprised that we have reasons
for doing that because we can compare with other
legislative bodies all over the world but it is not
going to come from us, it is going to come from
the body that would sit on the issue.”


http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/06/469-nass-members-have-five-aides-each-deputy-speaker/

Chai....dis fowlyansh stole my space ooo.

@topic,Which work are u guyz doing to hv 5aides each.

Its high tym to reduce it to 2.

Our economy is nt smilling,65% of nigrians are. Suffering.

.

So in 4 yrs, you guys will gulp 600Billion, doing what exactly?

Out of curiosity, apart from the theoretical duty of making laws, what is the role of senate and house of rep? They look like toothless bull dogs to me. I remember during the fuel subsidy saga, they hurried cut short their recess (which they are always going to anyway), made a resolution that the FG did not even acknowledge not to talk of following.

The other day, they summoned minister of petroleum and finance who totally ignored them. When they make a resolution, what I hear is that it is not binding on the government, hence what exactly is their practical role in our development as a nation. No body should quote constitutional roles to me, I want practical and relevant roles and responsibilities.

They collect ward robe allowance, whereas the rest of us use our salary to buy clothes, they collect hardship allowance whereas the real suffering citizens have nothing, they get constituency allowance with no constituency projects.

If I hand a magic wand, I would scap the National Assembly. Nonsense

This is not a PDP/ APC party thing.

.