The controversy over the monthly salary of a Nigerian
lawmaker has finally been laid to rest with a formal disclosure of what the
legislators earn. The National Institute of Legislative Studies, NILS,
apparently worried by growing public outcry against the Nigerian lawmakers, on
Friday released a set of documents, showing what constitutes the earnings of
the 109 Senators and 360 members of the Nigerian House of Representatives.
The documents, which were made available to Vanguard in
Abuja on Friday, indicated that the Nigerian lawmakers earn perhaps one of the
least salaries among legislators in the world, as against the notion that their
pay was outrageous.
Apart from releasing
global comparative figures drawn from nine countries, the NILS also gave
a breakdown of what constitutes the monthly take-home pay of each Nigerian
lawmaker. The figure shows that while a Nigerian Senator gets an annual basic
salary of N2,026,400,00 a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives goes
home with N1,985,212, 50 per year.
But beyond that a Senator takes home a bouquet of allowances
which hike their salary to N12, 902, 360.00 while their House of
Representatives counterpart goes home with N9,525,985.50 annually.
Thus, for the four-year tenure which the lawmaker stay in
the NASS, the Nigerian government spends a total of N1, 406,357,240.00 as basic salary on the 109
Senators and N3,428,994,780.00 on the 360 members of the House of
Representatives.
The breakdown of the allowances are on: Vehicle
fuelling/maintenance, Constituency, Domestic Staff, Personal Assistant,
Entertainment, Recess, Utilities, Newspaper/Periodicals, Houses Maintenance,
Wardrobe, Estacode, Duty Tour, which attract
more money available to the lawmakers than their basic salaries.
Beyond that, the lawmakers earn special amount in every
four-year period on Accommodation,
vehicle loan, furniture, and severance allowance, which make every
Senator to pocket N24,090,000.00 and a House of Representatives member to go
home with N23,822,00.00 within the same period.
Thus for every four year which a lawmaker stays in the NASS,
the Federal Government spends N2,625, 810,000.00 on accommodation, vehicle
loans, furniture and severance gratuity on the 109 senators and
N8,575,920,000.00 on the 360 House of Representatives members.
This payment brings the total expenditure of the government
to N33, 992, 360 for the senators and N33,347, 985, 50 on the members of the
HoR. The figures are lower when compared to what their counterparts in eight
other countries earn.
But the monies Nigerian lawmakers earn from their oversight
functions and other sources make them big earners.
A global comparison released by the NILS shows that
lawmakers in the Philippines earn the highest annual basic salary of $4,
497,957, followed by their counterparts in the United States of America where a
Senator goes home with $3,409,422 while a member of the US House of
Representatives takes $1,429,909 home annually.
This is followed by lawmakers in Kenya who earn $968,013 per
annum followed by their counterparts in Australia who take home $646,230 while
those in the United Kingdom go home with £494,285.43.
The list is followed by lawmakers from India, who earn
$474,484, Singapore with $253,469, and Tanzania with $230,961.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian government has been
spending a total of N150 billion per year on the NASS but has been forced to
step it down to N120 billion this year following rising outcry that the
lawmakers are taking too much from the Federation Account leaving little for
other sectors.
Credit: Vanguard
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