"Nobody is allowed to touch allowances, it is your salary that belongs to you

High cost of living: We are ready to make necessary sacrifice for our people – DS Benjamin Kalu

deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has said that members of House are willing to make necessary sacrifice to enable their constituents to cope with the current high cost of living in the country.

Kalu, who spoke on Politics Today aired on Channels Television, said they were ready to make adjustments in their salary in the interest of the suffering Nigerian people.

The deputy speaker recalled that the parliament made similar sacrifices in 2020 to help cushion the effects of economic hardship imposed on the people by COVID-19.

He said although the salaries and allowance that the members of the parliament are receiving cannot

actually take them home to do their jobs in their various constituencies, they are however always ready to put the nation and their constituents first in their consideration.

He said that the leadership of the National Assembly is a selfless one and is willing to make necessary sacrifices for the good of the country.

He said: "I can assure you like we call it the people's parliament, the pulse of the nation determines what we do. If we found out that people were suffering and we needed to make sacrifices, we will able to identify with the people. "I can assure you as well that we are not hoping that this crisis we are going through will linger for a very long time. When you have sound government policies, it doesn't end with policy pronouncements. We need to give timeline for the maturation of that policy.

"At the moment, the salary of National Assembly members is not as much as people think. Salary is different from allowance which is meant to do the jobs the constituents have sent us to do.

"Nobody is allowed to touch allowances, it is your salary that belongs to you. Allowances have what they are meant for. If you use it wrongly, you will be sanctioned for that.

"However, I can assure you of the selflessness of those leading the National Assembly. They are willing to adjust if needs be. If that's what will help Nigerians move to the next level. We didn't elect ourselves to be here, we were voted by our constituents.

"I assure you that when we feel their pulse and we see that through critical analysis that's unbiased that it is what will plug the gaps, we will do that."