Members of the House of Representatives have begun a token appeasement of Nigerians over the lingering hunger and suffering in the land, agreeing to cut their official salaries by 50 per cent for six months as part of their solidarity and sacrifice to support the economic hardship ravaging the citizens.
By slashing their salaries by 50%, the 360 lawmakers will be sacrificing N108 million monthly for the next six months.
This followed the adoption of an amendment to a motion’s prayer moved by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, on the need for lawmakers to sacrifice 50% of their N600,000 monthly salaries to support Nigerians in view of the hardship in the land.
The Deputy Speaker’s amended prayer was to a motion by Rep Isiaka Ayokunle calling on proponents of the planned nationwide protests to jettison the idea and engage the government in dialogue.
Kalu said the salary cut is to be used to support federal government’s efforts to address rising cost of food stuffs in the country with the view to ameliorating the hardship Nigerians are going through.
The motion was adopted and referred to the Committees on Humanitarian Affairs, Finance and Budget for compliance.