The National Assembly was on Tuesday thrown into pandemonium when legislative aides to lawmakers in the two chambers of the federal legislature roe in agitation of unpaid salaries and allowances by their employers. The legislative aides whose population was put at 2,500, gathered at the entrance of the National Assembly premises embarrassing their bosses with the protest of their unpaid salary and allowances.
The ad hoc National Assembly staff, under the aegis of the National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum (NASSLAF), expressed their mob anger, displaying placards with different inscriptions, chanting solidarity songs in expressing their agonies, to the embarrassment of the senators and members of the House of Representatives who were resuming plenary after two weeks recess.
Chairman of the National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum, Abdullahi Zuru, delivering their griefs or demands to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, threatened that the ad hoc National Assembly workers may take their protest to the extreme, proceed to the National Industrial Court as a last resort to get their salaries paid.
Zuru berated the Clerk of the National Assembly over his refusal to pay about 2,500 legislative aides 2019 salary arrears.
Speaker Gbajabiamila promised the protesting workers that their demands will be considered, saying that there is no excuse for the non-payment of their salaries and allowances.
The angry ad hoc staff also protested their exclusion from staff training and implementation of the National Minimum Wage by the management of the National Assembly.
The workers further threatened to use every means, including social media campaigns, petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), and other anti-graft agencies, to sustain their protest and demands.
However, this category of National Assembly workers are regular staff of the federal legislature. They are direct appointees of the respective lawmakers in the two chambers of the legislature. However, their emoluments are integrated into the National Assembly funds.