A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara has revealed his monthly remuneration as a presiding officer.

Dogara who was speaking in Abuja at the Open Week of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, July 3 says he received a monthly allowance of N25 million while his salary he earned N400,000 as a monthly salary.

He noted that the earnings of members of the National Assembly have been on the front burner for a while, even though their allowances cannot last them for more than three days.

According to him, there's a misconception that members of the house earn huge allowances and salaries, which he believes has given a negative image to the National Assembly where they are called thieves even at public fora.

Dogara noted: “While I was Speaker, my salary was less than N400,000. I don’t know if it has been increased now. My total imprest was N25 million and I told my accountant to open a separate account for the imprest and I never once took any money out of that account. Everything that came into that account was used to cater to the needs of constituents.

“My accountant complained of the level of demand on the account and I told him if the money there is finished, borrow, when money comes, you return it to where you had taken money from.

“I am saying this so Nigerians will give their legislatures breathing space and know that the narrative is not true about members’ pay. We all know that democracy is expensive and if we think that it is too expensive, maybe we should ask our political scientists to develop for us a local model that will be cheaper for us.”

Dogara believed that the time had come for the National Assembly to throw open its finances to dispel the insinuation that the legislators were taking a huge amount of money monthly.