The Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL) has reacted to reports that the Federal Government plans to pay each of the 492 delegates to the national conference slated to begin on Monday, a princely sum of N4 million monthly, throughout the three-month duration of the exercise.
The amount, according to CACOL Director, Mr. Debo Adeniran, was too much, adding tha each group should sponsor its delegates to the conference.
Adeniran said CACOL was opposed to government spending N7bn on the conference.
He said, “The hosting of the conference itself is too expensive than it is supposed to be. They have budgeted about N7bn, and if each delegate will be paid up to N4m per month, that accentuates the profligacy going on in the National Assembly, where members who are doing part-time jobs are taking more than full-time salary.
“Every section of the society that sends a delegate should have been asked to fund their delegates. It is not supposed to be a money-making venture to the extent that bribery and corruption will now pervade the atmosphere”.
Adeniran argued that monetizing the conference would make the delegates compromise the stand of their people for the stand of the authority paying them.
However, the Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Mr. Ibuchukwu Ezike, who is also a delegate to the confab, called for restraint because the purported amount to be paid to delegates was still within the realm of speculation.