Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has appointed no less than 33 aides in what is believed to be the first batch of the unlimited number he is constitutionally permitted to have “in a discretionary manner.”

The appointment was communicated in a press statement on Monday.

As against the government’s repeated rhetoric of the need for sacrifices from the citizenry, the new All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has continued to exploit the provisions made by the constitution for efficiency in governance to oil its political reward scheme, dissing the nationwide call for a cut in the cost of governance.

Mr Abbas’ first list, which did not include his chief of staff, highlighted Jamil Muhammed and Dunkwu Chamberlain as deputy chiefs of staff, administration, and legislative, respectively. The list also included separate aides on broadcast media, visual media, photography, and videographer, as well as two aides on new media and six special assistants on political matters.

Mr Tinubu similarly secured the approval of the senate to appoint 25 special advisers earlier in June in a process that deliberately omitted the constitutionally required transparent process of a senatorial review of the remuneration of the appointees.