A delegate to the ongoing National Conference, Moshood Salvador, said he engaged professors as researchers to facilitate his work at the conference.
He had dismissed the popularly held opinion that he and his colleagues were being paid jumbo allowances.
The former member of the House of Representatives also accused his co-delegates – Serving Overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare; a former President of the Nigeria Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, and human rights lawyer, Femi Falana – of playing to the gallery for rejecting the confab allowance.
Salvador explained that since the conference began, he had spent more than the bi-weekly allowance of N1.5m for employing aides and researchers including professors to enable him to perform optimally at the confab.
Salvador spoke on Wednesday in Lagos, during the public presentation of his memoir titled, “Hon. Moshood Salvador’s Memoir: Beyond the Dream.”
The former lawmaker, who served between 1999 and 2003, said he decided to employ the services of the professors whom he declined to name with a view to “getting the best formula for Nigeria.”
He said, “It is only when we don’t love this nation that we will be talking about money. On the issue of jumbo pay, I don’t know anything about it.
“Those saying they are going to donate that allowance to charity are only playing to the gallery. I have spent more than N3m on this cause (National Conference). I’m not waiting for government money.
“I have rented an apartment of about N800,000 a month. I have employed the services of a media team, researchers and they are there in my private office in Wuse, Abuja, conducting research and surfing the web to get information.
“In fact, I don’t want to mention professors that we are working together with to make sure we get the best formula for this nation. This money is from my pocket, not from anywhere. At my level, that’s not jumbo pay. I don’t even think about it (the pay).”
Chairman of the paper presentation session who is also a delegate to the conference, Senator Anthony Adefuye, described the jumbo pay allegations as an “exaggeration.”
Adefuye, who stated that he would be pushing for a parliamentary system of government and state police at the confab, said the 2014 national conference would be the cheapest in the nation’s history.
Arguing that the confab allowance is “not as jumbo as you think,” he said the bi-weekly N1.5m allowance could hardly take care of his needs.
He added, “But let me add that I stay in a hotel where I pay N67,000 a day. I have a car hire that I pay N12, 000 a day to take me to and fro the conference venue.”
Source: Punch
