A Senatorial candidate under the platform of the Green Party of Nigeria (GPN), Santos Ayuba Tangshak, has advocated that members of the National Assembly should do their job on part-time basis.
He also decried the huge sum of money given to the National Assembly legislators as running cost, which he is said cannot be accounted for.
Santos who is vying for the Plateau Central Senatorial seat stated this in Jos, the state capital, while featuring on a Political platform organised for candidates by the correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Plateau State Council.
“The National Assembly should be on part-time basis, that has been my argument. Your salary as a lawmaker should be personal to you; personal in the sense that if as a professional, you earn a kobo, your salary should move with you.”The truth about it is that, if we have solve most of the problems of Nigeria, then you see a play out.
“Look at the number of days the National Assembly seats, those who don’t attend sittings should not be paid their sitting allowance, for as long as there is a leadership of Senate.
“And not until we begin to tell ourselves the truth, we will not get to where we are suppose to be.
“The part-time status I’m talking about, yes allowances can follow you, but as it is, up till now, you and I know, that nobody knows how much a National Assembly lawmaker is paid.
The GPN chieftain who is seeking to replace Senator Joshua Dariye who has been convicted of financial misappropriation said, “The closiest I got to know about their earnings was when SERAP did an analysis on our own Senator Joshua Dariye, where they put in N13.5 million and they calculated over N80 million for six months as running cost, that name running cost must be retired in terms of transparency and accountability.
“How can they give you a running cost and you can’t retire it? He asked.
“And you don’t have a constituency office, that is also a window of corruption.
Santos who was a lecturer in the Department of History and International Studies, University of Jos, said if elected his medical focus would be to redefine representation by making sure that the law making and oversight mandate in relation to the health of his constituents will be that of accessibility to quality healthcare at both primary and secondary levels.
“My educational focus would be redefining and adding value to representation by making constituents appreciate the power of knowledge and utilisation of the global space at all levels through networking that will add value to the constituency”, he maintained.
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