“Vote us out in 2023 if you don’t like us,” Senate President tells Nigerians

Senate President Ahmad Lawan has challenged Nigerians to vote out the members of the 9th National Assembly in 2023 if they don’t like them. 

Lawan stated this on Friday, November 20, at a retreat for top management of the National Assembly Service Commission and National Assembly in Abuja.

He urged Nigerians to engage in debate as to what the National Assembly means to them rather than dissipate energy on jumbo salaries and allowance of the federal lawmakers.

According to him, “What does the legislature mean to Nigerians. Can we debate properly what the functions of members of the National Assembly and indeed the legislature should be rather than be talking about jumbo pay?

We should be looking for value for money. Without the National Assembly or the legislature across the country, we won’t have democracy anymore.

We need to understand what the National Assembly or the legislature means to Nigerians.”

He said the N128 billion budgeted for National Assembly is one percent of N13.08 trillion 2021 national budget. 

Adding that, “Instead of trying to see how N128 billion will be utilized by the National Assembly, what will be the outputs and how useful they are to the Nigerian public, Nigerians only argue that the budget should be cut, it is too much.

I’m not defending the National Assembly, but I’m here to encourage debate on what the National Assembly or the legislature means to us as a country and as people.

If you don’t like the set of members of the ninth National Assembly, change all of us in 2023. Get better people but help support the system to function.”