Amaechi reveals how much ministers earn

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, claims that he and other ministers earn “only N950, 000”a month, from which they also pay their aides.

He made this claim in Abuja on Tuesday at the presentation of a book entitled, “Dignity in Service,” written by the late Dr. Matthew Mbu, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“A minister earns only N950, 000 a month. Out of this money, N350, 000 is for accommodation so there is no more money given to you. The remaining N600, 000 includes payment for your staff, personal assistants and all that,” he said.

Amaechi, a former governor of River State, who was the chairman of the occasion, stated this to refute the suggestion by an earlier speaker that past leaders were honest, unlike the present day leaders.

While he extolled the virtues of the late Mbu, he said that he would continue to promote transparency, adding, that it was not true that only past leaders were honest.

He further said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government had helped to stop the culture of waste such that private citizens no longer throw lavish parties.

“Nigerians like going to parties. That is one benefit of this government. We now assess our wealth and value money. Before, once you get money from the illegal means, we hold parties. There are very few parties these days because there is no more money to hold such parties.

“There are no ‘owambe’ anymore because there is very little money to hold ‘owambe.’ The reason is that the ‘owambe’ money used to come from the government and there is no money in the government to do such,” Amaechi said.

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Earlier, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan, said that it was disturbing that the older generation is refusing to leave the scene for the younger generation.

The Catholic Bishop, who was a former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, had argued that post-independence leaders like the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, were young when they did great things for Nigeria.

He noted that the late Mbu was appointed a minister at the age of 23, and wondered if the younger generation could be given the kind of opportunity that existed in the 1960s.

 

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