By Paul Effiong, Abuja
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has tasked the 10th National Assembly on openness and transparency, especially on their monthly salaries, allowances and constituency funds.
Dogora gave advice during the House of Representatives Open Week Forum aimed at ensuring legislative interaction between constituents and the lawmakers.
The former speaker said the forum was necessary to create an inclusive commitment of the present leadership of the House of Representatives for the purpose of sharing legislative experience with stakeholders with a view to ensure open and transparent leadership.
He identified lack of open conversations among leaders and subjects as a major challenge confronting Nigeria’s democracy, even as he commended the current Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, for the event.
According to Dogara, open conversation between the subjects and those leading them is one of the major problems of democracy in Nigeria. He advocated for regular and consistent platform through which effective conversation would be conducted among parliaments.
While lauding the leadership of the National Assembly, Dogara urged lawmakers not to always speak for their constituents, but to fine-tune an appropriate mechanism where they could always speak with them.
“It is not always good enough to talk to the people but to speak with them.
“At a forum like this, nothing should be off limits. Mr Speaker, the issue of how funds are processed in the National Assembly has been ongoing over time,” he said.
The former speaker emphasised the need for free flow of information, observing that secrecy in allowances and salaries of lawmakers has created room for many speculations.
The former speaker recalled that during his tenure, only N25 million was the sum total of his monthly take home pay, which he claimed was usually used for the upkeep of his constituency.
He, therefore, advised lawmakers from both chambers to always make their earnings known to citizens, especially their constituents to avoid speculations.
Speaking at the occasion, another former Speaker of the House, Aminu Masari called for an all-inclusive discussion, maintaining that an effective approach should start from the constituents to the grassroots and to the lawmakers in Abuja.
Masari stated that the open week event organised by the House of Representatives is an ample opportunity for all Nigerians and political leaders to scrutinise themselves in order to reflect on what they have done well and where they went wrong.
