Chairman of the Presidential
Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption, PACAC, Professor Itse Sagay, has reacted
to a statement against him by the Senate.
He mocked the federal lawmakers,
saying Nigerians buy the clothes they wear.
Sagay further advised them to
learn how to take criticisms in good faith.
Sagay insisted that he would not
stop criticizing members of the National Assembly for their expenditure, which
he said was adversely affecting the economy.
His words: “I criticize them for
the huge amount of money they are taking out of the country.
“They are creating a situation in
which Nigeria does not have enough funds; we have kidnapping, there is Boko
Haram, we have militants, armed robbery and so on.
“That is basically what I said. I
spoke the truth. They have wardrobe allowance, in other words, we are the ones
buying clothes for them to wear.
“When they arrived Abuja, were
they naked? What is their problem?”
The legal luminary had lamented
that National Assembly allocated N125 billion to themselves alone this year and
that while the United States President earns $400,000 per annum, a Nigerian
senator earns over $1.7 million.
Sagay said besides a basic salary
of N2.4 million per month, they earn allowances such as hardship (50 percent of
basic salary), newspaper allowance (50 percent), wardrobe allowance (25
percent), entertainment (30 percent), recess (10 percent), and leave (10
percent), among others.
The total allowances, he said,
amounts to N29.5 million per month and N3.2 billion per annum.
“Perhaps the most notorious
example of the legislators’ resistance to the war against corruption is the
rejection of the right of the executive to choose the persons who will
spearhead that struggle,” he added.
“The clear impression is created
that Nigerian legislators are in office for themselves and not for the
populace.”
“Not surprisingly, the National
Assembly has not passed a single bill for the promotion of anti-corruption war
since it commenced business in July 2015.”
On Thursday, Senate lambasted the
Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
Its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi
Abdullah, said“Sagay could not even check the records before proclaiming that
‘the National Assembly has not passed a single bill for the promotion of
anti-corruption war since it commenced business in July 2015’.
“This man talks like a man who is
constantly under the influence of some substance and perhaps possessed as he
employs the language of a tout with no civility. He is probably constantly
excited and incensed by the fact of having his first opportunity to find
himself in the corridors of power.
“He pontificates and talks as if
the war against corruption of the Buhari administration depends solely on him
to survive. He once publicly attacked the Attorney General of the Federation
and accused him of not doing enough to prosecute the war.
“This is a man who cannot stand
for councillorship election and win. We challenge him to state what his
contributions are in the election of our amiable President, Muhammadu Buhari,
and what new ideas he has contributed to making the fight against corruption
more effective since his appointment.
“With an easily excited man like
him as head of an advisory body, the nation has continued to lose
anti-corruption cases in courts due to the failure of his advice. He needs to
do more work and talk less because media prosecution cannot win the war on
corruption.”