As the 8th Senate resumes from its annual recession on Tuesday, low morale seems to be pervading the legislative staff over non payment of their welfare packages by the management. Investigation by DAILY POST at the Senate and the House of Representatives, reveals that since the beginning of the current 8th Assembly, legislative aides’ salaries are not paid on time.
Wages, ranging from the 28-day to quarterly duty tour allowances, in addition to the quarterly trainings are yet to be paid to the legislative aides.
A number of the aides who spoke to DAILY POST expressed their disappointment with the current leaderships of both the Senate and House of Representatives led by Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara, respectively, which according to them, have connived with the management of NASS to undermine the welfare of the aides.
They pointed out that while salaries of other civil servants are paid on the 25th as directed by the President Muhammadu Buhari, staff of the National Assembly receive theirs the second week of every month despite the fact that National Assembly is on first line charges.
They also disclosed that the 28-day allowance paid to them at the beginning of each Assembly was stopped half way. ”Only levels 8 to 14 have been paid,” said a senior legislative aide who declined to give his name.
Speaking under anonymity, a Secretary to one of the House members, confided in our correspondent that most of them working as legislative staff were not captured directly on the payroll.
According to him, those between levels 8 and 14 receive N75, 000 while levels 15 and above are paid quarterly DTA of N100, 000 each.
“We used to have quarterly trainings to prepare us for legislative duties needed to assist our principals and that we have been denied”, he added.
Our investigations also revealed that while the aides are being denied their dues, their principals are regularly paid their constituency allowances of between N33, 000,000 and N45, 000,000 to each member of the House and Senate respectively.
The legislative aides situation is said to have been compounded by the recent jack up of their tax deductions to 50% by the National Assembly management without any explanation.
Another aide described Saraki and Dogara as the worst leaders ever produced in Nigeria’s Democratic dispensation in terms of welfare of Legislative Staff, calling on anti-graft agencies to probe allegations by the former Appropriation Committee Chairman, Hon. Abdumumini Jubrin.
In an appointment letter sighted by our correspondent on demand from an aide, a clause succinctly states that the legislative aides were being engaged by their principals.
He said: “The clause allows a legislator to disengage his aide at the slightest excuse without considerations. All he needs to do is to just submit fresh replacement to any aide he intends to drop and that will be it.
“Can you see the hypocrisy of our legislators? They summon agencies everyday for casualisation and wrongful termination of appointments of workers while they claim to be fighting for the ordinary people but their aides don’t deserve better deal,”
The fear of the implications of this particular clause, it was reliably gathered, makes it impossible for the aides to resist any treatment meted to them by the management.
Investigations also indicate that the permanent staff are not equally happy about the current situation in the legislature as they too suffer all manner of denials in terms of trainings and allowances.
A senior staff who preferred anonymity said the thefts and breaches in National Assembly were unprecedented.
He cited the veering of votes as a common occurrence in the federal legislature, adding that it was ironical that the same legislators would always declare as criminal any agency that veers votes without coming to NASS to seek approval while NASS sub heads are veered without such recourse.
The staff stressed that the war against corruption by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would not be regarded as serious, unless with allegations by Jibrin were critically examined.
He called for probe of both the present and past leaders of the National Assembly, whom he alleged owned houses in choice areas of Abuja and outside the country.
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