Professor Itsey Sagay have condemned the issuance of wardrobe allowance to federal lawmakers in Nigeria.
Professor Sagay, who is the Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption, spoke in Benin at the weekend, said such expenses, among others, was draining the economy.
“Politicians are killing themselves to be President, National Assembly members because all the monies are at the center.
“With that type of self-interest and a few people collecting everything that we have, why should we allow the centre to have all the resources and the state completely impoverish, which is what we have today?
“The senators have wardrobe allowance; but they did not go to Abuja naked. They have newspaper allowance and furniture allowance – about 50 items which they never talk about.
“They only talk about their salaries, which is about N1 million a month. But when you add all these allowances, we are hitting N20 million per month. If you have true federalism, that money will not be available for them to blow.
“These are besides budget padding, which is a stable means of drilling money from the poor people of this nation," he explained.