The House of Representatives has been unable to confirm if lawmakers have indeed begun donating half of their salaries to the government to fight hunger as promised two weeks ago, FIJ can report.

During a plenary session on July 18, Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, proposed a motion for lawmakers to donate half of their salaries to combat hunger in Nigeria for a six-month period. Kalu amended an existing prayer on the floor of the house, seeking that the Senate take empathetic action to dissuade Nigerians from protesting.

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Pleading with the other lawmakers in the plenary session, Kalu alluded to the insufficiency of the efforts of the Federal Government in addressing economic challenges in Nigeria. He argued that the lawmakers could bolster FG’s efforts by donating the monies for a period of six months.

“… I am moving that we amend that prayer to include that members sacrifice maybe 50 percent of our salaries for a period of three months to six months to help Nigerians and to show that we are in support. This government is doing its best but one year is not enough to address the challenges of this country,” Kalu said.

“Our salary is N600,000 a month. I want to plead that we let go of 50 per cent of our salary for a period of six months.”

If each member donated N300,000 into a common purse, the legislative chamber would be contributing N108m monthly to the Federal Government and N648m for six months.

The motion was eventually adopted by the lawmakers, with the hope that it would discourage proponents of the protest from taking to the streets.

On Wednesday, FIJ contacted Akin Rotimi, spokesman of the National Assembly, to confirm if the lawmakers sacrificed 50% of their July salaries as promised. However, he did not respond to calls, text messages to his line.

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Prior to the reactionary decision, FIJ had reported how the National Assembly — especially the Senate — inflated its budgetary allocations by 75% in December 2023. The lawmakers alloted N4 billion for the construction of a new National Assembly Recreational Centre and N6 billion to build car packs, among other expenses. The 2024 NASS budget is the highest Nigeria has ever allocated to the legislature ever.

Furthermore, FIJ recently reported that as of June 2024, the National Assembly had received half of its budgetary allocation of N172 billion, while core Federal Ministries — such as Power, Works and Housing, Water Resources, Transportation, and Communications — had received less than 5% of their 2024 budgetary allocations.

This is against a backdrop of high food prices, headline inflation of 34.2% in June and a food inflation rate of 40.87%.