MONROVIA – It was in August 2020 when Montserrado County’s maverick opposition lawmaker Abraham Darius Dillon introduced a bill aimed at reducing the salaries of lawmakers from $10,000 to $5,000. Senator Dillon reasoned at that time that the salary reduction bill would save the country US$300,000 monthly and over US$4 million annually, a reasonable proposal for a country that needed to set its development priorities right and improve the livelihoods of its destitute citizenry. But five years down the line, as a Rescue Government Senator who sacrificed to bring the Joseph Nyuma Boakai administration to power, Senator Dillon has thrown in the towel, saying he is withdrawing his bill from the floor because the citizens who are the main beneficiaries are lukewarm about the salary reduction bill.
“Let me disappoint you on this salary issue. I know it will be the talking point for the year. I am dropping that bill. Liberians don’t want that bill. You in the media don’t want that bill. You were right here when I reintroduced that bill in October last year. My colleagues were laughing at me on the floor. They said that bill, I alone will see about it. Some people said I was talking to the camera. Some of my colleagues were making negative comments about that bill, but none of you reported it. But if somebody had introduced that bill and I made negative comments against that bill, it was going to be a talking point.
“I am not only disappointed in my colleagues; I am not only disappointed in the media, but I am also disappointed in civil society. How many Liberians have come with placards saying, ‘we agree with Senator Dillon’s bill’? Every time we put this bill on the floor, our colleagues laugh, and the media laugh with them, and nobody says it. But if those negative comments against reducing our salaries were coming from Dillon, it would have been the headline news. So, if the country wants it, the country will come for it. The bill is here. Stop asking me about this bill when you are not pushing it. When did you ever have a talk show to tell Liberians to get involved in this bill that Dillon placed on the floor?” Senator Dillon said Monday when he updated the media about developments on Capitol Hill.
According to the Montserrado County lawmaker, it takes character, courage and understanding of one’s own situation as a leader to reduce your salary.
“I cannot reduce my own salary. I am not president. The president of Liberia announced a 40% reduction of his salary. Do you know how much is it? Didn’t the media carry that story all around that the president reduced his salary? Do you even know what the reduction is? In order to reduce our salary here, it must be by law, Article 36. In other countries when people-driven bills are on the floor, it is the people that drive it and cause pressure to come on their lawmakers. How many of you in the media and all of us together have asked their lawmakers from their counties why they don’t join Senator Dillon on that bill. I am proposing $5000. If someone says $2000, I will agree. If somebody proposes $3000, I will agree. I am proposing a $5000 reduction. Why can’t the country join, but every day they are asking Senator Dillon about his bill. My bill is right here.
“The constitution in Article 36 says our salaries and benefits monthly should be fixed by law. Nobody is supposed to be guessing how much we are making here. Everybody is supposed to know how much we are making here.
“And then, let’s pass the president’s salary into law because that’s what Article 62 of the constitution says. Then Article 72 of the Constitution says we must fix and determine the salaries, benefits and allowances of people in the judiciary. Do you see the kind of power we have? We have power but we are not exercising it on the executive and the judiciary because we don’t want to exercise it on ourselves first.
“If I don’t get support for that bill, stop asking me about it. When I did it during George Weah’s time, they said I was doing it for campaign purposes. My own Rescue Government, the last time I reintroduced the bill on this floor in October, how many times did you invite lawmakers on your show and ask them to discuss the bill that Senator Dillon has on the floor?” Senator Dillon stated peevishly.
In his usually frank manner, Senator Dillon said his current salary net is $7900, when questioned by journalists, and went on to provide details about what he has done with his earnings to empower communities in Montserrado County.
“When I became senator, I said to the country, if it is true that lawmakers are making $15,000 every month in salaries and allowance, I will take $5000 and give the balance to Montserrado County. When I became senator, the first pay I took here was under harmonization. The Liberian government had taken a decision to reduce lawmakers salaries from $1500 in gross to $10000 in gross. When you deduct takes, it comes to $7900. It is from that $7900 I said I will add $1000 to make it $3000 to give it back to Montserrado. It is from that money that the central Matardi Mosque four bathrooms were built. Go to PHP in District #7, people are not defecating on the beach any longer. We renovated that place and put in commodes and turned it over to the community leadership.
“In District #17, we built a hand pump there. We renovated a public school in Todee. We built a polytank to provide safe drinking water to the people on Ashmun Street, among many other interventions. Until September 2021 when we opened the Rehab Center and made a statement that the $3000 that we are giving back every month to Montserrado County from our salary will be utilized to rehabilitate people. How many of you sit on your radio every day and people ask you what is Dillon doing with his salary and you don’t say anything?
“The media and the country must take interest in that bill. It should not be only about lawmakers. We could use my bill now to put salaries and benefits on the table. Can we make a holistic discussion out of this bill and save the country some money and make public service a place for service to the country, and not a place for anticipation for the pocket,” Dillon said emphatically.
Public reactions
The statement from Senator Dilllon has elicited a flurry of reactions from Liberians from all spectra of society, here and in the Diaspora.
According to William Pokar: “He just pretending. He wants to show himself. All of them are the Librarian people’s problems. When he was not senator he said his colleagues were riding expensive cars. So da Keke he is riding now? Let people hear in their ears yaah, fake Dillion always seeking public attention. Why is he riding the same USD$ 45,000.00 cars he previously criticized? Nonsense!”
“So those SUP and MOJA Militants who accused the TWP of exploiting the masses are now satisfied with their huge salaries/ benefits as Senators? So all the big mouths and South African Revolutionary Slogans they shouted on LU campus with pumped fists were all intended for personal benefits? What a shame. Are they not in the cause of the people again?” wondered Elijah Barnard.
But Vamadee Donzo on his part supports Senator Dillon in his quest to have lawmakers’ salaries reduced to save the government from unnecessary spending.
“Darius Dillon is 100% right on this issue. If ordinary Liberians are serious about lawmakers’ salaries reduction they will call for referendum or some changes in constitution,” he said.
“We all listened to the Senator. He said we, the ordinary citizens, including you the journalists and advocates are not helping to push his bills. This man got two decent bills in the house. The 5k salary caps and the statute of limitations on corruption cases from 5 to 15 years. We all need to persuade our Lawmakers to pass this law, if not we can’t vote for them come 2029,” contends Elijah Y. Yormie.
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