THE General Secretary of the Nigerian Baptist Convention, Reverend (Dr) Olasupo Ayokunle has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to cut the allowances of the country's legislators both at the upper and lower chambers so as to allow some more money to go to the federal government for the execution of national projects.

The revered cleric made this call while interacting with Tribune Church while speaking on the state of the nation. Reverend Ayokunle stated that it was needful following a similar action that the Federal Government carried out by slashing the salaries of the executive arm of government.

“The allowances that they receive are more than the basic salary; that is the problem. If he has done that with the executive what about the legislative arm of government? They are more than the executive. Is he ready to cut the size of the executive? There are many advisers that are lined up. Two ministers for each ministry, despite the fact that we have professionals,” Ayokunle advised.

He however opined that the present problem between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the federal government could be attributed to the lack of trust, adding that it was only expected that Nigerians would kick against the removal of oil subsidy based on their past experiences on government policies.

“What president Jonathan inherited was an untrustworthy government. Nigerians are reacting out of their experience. Many people do not believe so much in this transformation agenda that the president is embarking upon. This is based on past experiences. The fight is not against the personality of President Goodluck Jonathan but the irresponsibility of government over the years. For about 13 years, when the civilians came in, we heard that we would have stable electricity. But 13 years after, we have not had it.

“How do you want Nigerians to believe such government any longer? It is the same PDP that has been at the centre for 13 years. If Nigerians doubt the government, they are not fools they know what they are doing. The roads are bad. Do you want the people to believe the agenda when this government is consuming over 70 per cent of the budget and nothing is done to address that?” he queried.

He carpeted the lawmakers for their continued refusal to reduce their earnings. According to him, “The legislators are not ready to bring down their earnings in order to give more money to the government to provide social welfare services to the people. Will the removed subsidy going to do everything that is lacking in Nigeria? This is not the first time that subsidy will be removed. The ones that they removed what transformation did they carry out?”