Moghalu recommends 50% cut in salaries, allowances of NASS members, political office holders

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and one-time presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu, has recommended a 50% cut in the salaries and allowances of members of the National Assembly and political office holders in the face of the biting economic hardship in the country.

Moghalu, an economist, who made the recommendations when he featured on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday night, lamented the fact that despite the hardship facing Nigeria in the wake of the petrol subsidy removal, the “country’s governance culture encourages extravagance among political leaders and appointees.”

“I recommend a 50% cut for all political office holders and all national legislators. It would make people a little bit more sober. It would make them understand that we are in hard times,” Moghalu insisted.

“The culture of governance is a very important issue that needs to be addressed and the tone has to be set from the top, from the presidency down,” he said.

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“It has to include the National Assembly because a lot of resources go there and they are supposed to be independent of the executive.

“So, they themselves must come on board, examine themselves, and say: ‘Look, even if we have been making this mistake in the past, we cannot continue this way. We have to cut our salaries.’

“So the culture of governance – all these excessive demonstrations of power and influence – is a very negative culture because it shows that government is not for service.

“It is for self-aggrandisement. It is for political power for its own sake, not for leadership and service,” he maintained.

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