As the 8th National Assembly gets inaugurated today, Urban and Environmental development expert, Architect Bongo Brown Igboegwu, has called on lawmakers to consider reducing their salaries and allowances as a matter of urgent national importance and patriotic gesture.

Igboegwu, who is also the President of Brown and Brown Incorporated, spoke to The Guardian exclusively on Friday in Enugu. He contended that in view of the continuous slide in the price of oil and the deplorable social conditions of most Nigerians, “a drastic cut in the emoluments of members of National Assembly will be a step in the right direction.”

He regretted that next corruption, the cost of governance is weighing heavily on the nation’s economy stressing that even in advanced countries the stipends paid to politicians do not serve as source of prodigious wealth but to defray the cost of the immediate needs of the officials.

His words: “If what I hear about the salaries and allowances of the National Assembly is true, it should be in the interest of the legislators and Nigeria’s economy that it be drastically reduced and made public. As it stands, they earn several times more than the President of the United States of America, (US) the richest nation on earth. That is ridiculous.”

Igboegwu, who conceived, designed and constructed the Michael Okpara Square in Enugu; lamented the rate of looting and stealing going on in government offices pointing out that the development calls for a new hash tag #BringBackOurMoney to raise awareness to the exportation of Nigeria’s monies to other countries.
He added that corruption including over invoicing, outright stealing and insider trading in commercial banks has made it near impossible for Nigeria to have functional health institutions that could deliver quality ad affordable medical care to the people.