By James Adamu
The National Assembly is seeking a distinct salary structure for aides to Senators and members of the House of Representatives.
There are 109 senators and 360 members at the National Assembly with thousands of aides serving them.
The new structure being sought is to address the peculiar financial needs of the legislative aides, especially job insecurity.
There is also a push to insulate the appointments of the political aides from arbitrary terminations by their principals in both chambers of the Legislature.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Kamoru Ogunlana, made the call during a three-day capacity building training organised for the legislative aides in Abuja.
He explained that the challenges faced by the aides must be tackled for better service delivery from them and by extension, which would in turn run on the performance of senators and members.
Ogunlana said, “We are not unaware of the challenges you face. Although Legislative Aides are political appointees, your conditions of service are tied to the template of career civil servants, which appears not to take cognisance of your peculiar needs.
“Unlike the career civil servant, your appointments do not guarantee job security, tenure is largely dependent on your principals, and ranking is often not based on qualifications or competence.
“Furthermore, there is currently no comprehensive law or guidelines clearly defining the duties and responsibilities of the various cadres of Legislative Aides.
“This leaves gaps that sometimes expose you to arbitrary decisions and unfair treatment.
“The present management believes it is time to address these systemic issues.
“We are advocating that the National Assembly Service Commission and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission should consider developing a distinct salary structure and conditions of service that reflect the unique nature of your work.
“We also believe the qualifications for appointments should be reviewed to attract competent and experienced personnel.
“Equally important is the need for mechanisms to prevent arbitrary termination of appointments by principals.”
The Chairman of National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), Saviour Enyiekere, in his remarks, tasked the legislative aides to be more knowledgeable and skillful than their principals for a robust legislative output at both chambers of the National Assembly.
The categories of legislative aides attending the training range from the Chief of Staff to the four Presiding officers at NASS, their Special Advisers to Senior Legislative Aides (SLAs)
The training was organised by the National Assembly in collaboration with Research Enterprise Systems (RES).
Findings by Spear News indicate that the National Assembly’s budget includes provisions for the salaries and allowances of the aides.
For instance, for the 2023 fiscal year, about N228.1 billion was allocated to the National Assembly. The money covered salaries, allowances, severance packages, and overheads, including those for legislative aides.
Some estimates say about N8bn of this amount was spent directly on the salaries and allowances of the aides, said to be in excess of 3,000 in number.
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