Senator Ali Ndume has said that federal lawmakers and other highly placed public officers earn luxury wages to the detriment of the public.
The former Senate leader spoke on Sunday, saying Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lamido Sanusi, had corroborated his position on the high cost of running a presidential democracy.
Ndume, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Army, said the presidential system of government currently in place was no longer realistic.
Osinbajo and Sanusi had at a webinar on Friday decried the high cost of governance, with the Vice President calling for a national debate on the issue.
Ndume said, “We have a budget of N10tn and only 30 per cent is going to the majority, whereas 70 per cent will be spent on a few minority. The system we are practising now is not fair either morally or socially.
“In the current system, workers are not being paid living wages, whereas a privileged few are earning luxury wages. The National Assembly members, including me, for instance, are paid luxury wages.
“How can we live comfortably when only a few of us are living a life of luxury while the majority are living in abject poverty? The N30,000 minimum wage is too small; it can make workers engage in corruption in order to survive.”
The senator, who represents Borno South Senatorial District, called for a switch to the parliamentary system.
“Parliamentary system is effective in the sense that the head of government is more or less one among equals of the parliamentarians,” he said.
“Therefore, accountability is achieved in the chamber in the sense that the prime minister has to be in the parliament every day, and he must give account of government to his colleagues.
“Also, ministers are selected among the elected parliamentarians. The idea is to reduce the cost of governance and make it more effective.”
