Adebayo Fajinmi & Fausat Bello
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Monday, has revealed the salaries of members of the National Assembly to the public in Abuja, opposing Senator Shehu Sani’s claim who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District at the 8th Assembly.
Lawan revealed this in a paper presented at the First Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series titled, ‘The Legislature, Legislative Mandate and People- The Reality and the Public Perception,’ organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies.
Lawan said President Muhammadu Buhari has surpassed his predecessors on assent to bills.
Lawan said, “The total salary of a member of the Senate is about N1.5m while that of the House of Representatives is about N1.3m.
“The quarterly office allowance for legislators is what is erroneously conflicted with a monthly income to create confusion and mislead Nigerians.
“The average office running cost for a Senator is about N13m while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N8m.”
Therefore the N13m office running cost for a senator amounts to N52m in a year while the N8m for a member of the House of Representatives amounts to N32m in a year.
He noted that the N13m and the N8m quarterly office-running cost for a member of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively were the lowest of any presidential democracy in the world.
According to him, the monthly allowances cover costs of local/international travel, consulting of professional services, medical services, office stationeries/computers, consumables, books, newspapers, magazines, maintenance of motor vehicles and office equipment among others.
Shehu Sani’s Claim
Shehu Sani has confirmed in a statement in 2018 that Nigerian Senators are earning N13.5 million monthly as running cost.
The lawmaker said the running cost was in addition to the over N750,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances of each member of the Senate.
He, however, kicked against payment of allowances, saying Senators should be paid just salaries.
The statement reads, “I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month.
“Though no specific instruction on what the fund should be used for, lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running costs.
“The running cost is in addition to funds earmarked for each senator for constituency projects.
“But what I am saying is that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750,000.00. The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every Senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you. You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.
“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it.
“They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used. So, it’s becoming difficult for what used to happen in the past to happen now. But I can tell you that I would love a situation where we do away with running costs, constituency projects and leaves senators and members of House of Reps with salaries.
“And also, the public should be informed that nobody should come to any senator’s house asking for any kobo. That also would be helpful. There are issues that we need to understand. First, I don’t believe that members of the National or even state assemblies should be involved in carrying out what is called constituency projects”.
“When people are elected into the National Assembly, they should just be involved in law making, raising motions, bills and also performing oversight functions. But we live in a society where people cannot differentiate between the legislators and the executive.
“When the people come to you, they want you to build roads, dig boreholes, build hospitals, schools, give money, pay school fees for them. Now, if we have a society in which people will stop asking legislators to do those things, then there is no need (for the allowances) But funny enough, if you are very active in the National Assembly in making laws and you don’t embark on projects in your constituency, you cannot in any way be appreciated by the people you are there to serve because the electorates in United States are different from the electorates in Africa.
“We live in an underdeveloped society with a lot of poverty, misery and wants. What people want is for you to address those basic fundamental issues that affects their lives.
“If we can be done with that, it would be okay. Now, you are talking of bogus salaries and bogus allowances – there are three steps you need to consider the first has to do with the fact when you represent the people, expectations arose from your immediate and the larger constituencies. But I agree with you that the salaries and allowances of lawmakers should not be discreet, but what is discreet about it when you can write to Resource and Fiscal Mobilization Commission to get everything about what a senator earns? The only money you are not expected to account for is your salary and the salary of a senator is about N750, 000.00 per month. The other one, the running cost of office must be accounted for. You must provide a receipt for every expense you make.”
