Re: More expensive to maintain U.S., UK legislators

SIR: It is disgraceful that no less a person than the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative Studies, Dr. Ladi Hamalai seeks to justify the jumbo allowances of Nigerian legislators. It is all too easy to take these matters out of context and present them in a manner that promotes personal idiosyncracies. Can the learned Doctor please tell his audience what the minimum wage in the U.S. and the UK is? What is the gross national earnings?

What is the average personal income? What is the percentage of the unemployed in these countries? How many months salary is owed workers by both government at all levels and by private employers of labour? What is the state of their social services? What percentage of their children are out of school or pregnant women or nursing mothers and their children who do not have access to basic medicare? How many bad roads do these countries have? How often do they experience power outages?

How many homes sink boreholes to provide water for their families or build soak-away pits, or install Poles, Cables and Transformers to power their homes? Should I go on, Really? Thank you dear Editor for your time.

•Obinna Okoro,
Port Harcourt.
Rivers State