December 8th, 2025
The substantial salaries and running costs earned by Nigeria’s federal lawmakers has been criticized by the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo. He argued that the earnings are unjustifiable in a country where the minimum wage stands at N70,000.
He stated this on Sunday while speaking as the guest of The Toyin Falola Interviews held via Zoom.
Mr Falola, a professor moderated the interview, which has other interviweres such as the founder of the Kukah Centre and cleric, Matthew Kukah, and former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu.
He said, “That constitution does not allow legislators to fix their salary or their emolument. It does not. But what do we get? They fix their salary. If you want to know what has happened, look at the legislature’s budget in 2007 and look at it today, you’ll be amazed. You’ll be surprised.”
The former president boldly stated that the lawmakers are largely responsible for the flaws in the implementation of the document while admitting that Nigeria’s constitution is imperfect.
“I will not say our constitution is perfect. Part of it is that if I have the opportunity tomorrow and I have the right, there are some that I’ll immediately change in part of our constitution. But I will not blame the constitution as much as I will blame the operators of the constitution,” he added.
He, however, said the document requires amendments but stressed that the real problem lies in its operators.
“My own belief on constitution is that no constitution is perfect. But the constitution we have, with its imperfection, are the people who are running our constitution, are they running it the way they should run it,” he added.