Nigerian ministers receive higher salaries and allowances than their counterparts in Britain, United States, South Africa and other stronger economies, relative to the country’s wealth, according to an investigation by Daily Trust using official data from several sources.
A Nigerian minister soaks up N32 million (about $200,000) in yearly emoluments, more than 120 times the country’s gross domestic product per person (GDP).
This means that a minister picks up a package that equals over 120 times what each Nigerian citizen is worth when the nation’s total wealth is shared by the population.
In these terms, the cost of maintaining a minister here by far overtakes what obtainsin Singapore which pays the one of the highest packages globally. A Singaporean minister receives about N240 million yearly but this is only 28 times the country’s GDP per person.
A minister (secretary) in the United States is paid about N31.84 million yearly, a little less than the Nigerian ministerial package but amounting to just 3.9 times the GDP perperson in the US.
South Africa pays N31 million, while Australia pays N22 million to a minister amounting to 2.1 times of GDP per person inthat country.
Euro Zone’s biggest economy Germany paysabout the same amount as Nigeria, while Britain pays a slightly higher amount of cash of about N33million but this is only 2.4 times its GDP per person.
Nigerian ministers are even ahead of headsof government in very wealthy nations like Britain and France, whose Prime Ministers receive about N30 million yearly.
In Canada, a minister’s salary is 4.5 times the country’s GDP per capita, though he receives N38 million per annum - a higher amount of cash than Nigeria’s.
The gap is even more striking when the Nigerian minister is compared with his colleagues in less strong economies, like Ghana’s which pays N9 million to a minister - just 35 times its GDP per person.
The result of Daily Trust’s investigation on ministers’ perks is coming few days after the paper published details of similar fact-cat salaries enjoyed by senators and House of Representatives members which place them on the top spot in global MPs’ salaries chart.
According to records of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), a Nigerian minister of state receives N30 million ($189, 735) yearly in salaries and allowances, slightly less than his substantive cabinet minister.
With 30 ministers and 12 ministers of states in President Jonathan’s cabinet, the Federal Government spends more than N1.3billion yearly to maintain the ministers.
The senior and junior ministers receive about N960 million and N360 million per annum respectively in legitimate perks.
But RMAFC had said ministers illegally receive much more money, through frivolous trips, maintenance of fleet of vehicles and other costs.
Documents show that a minister receives an annual basic salary of N2 million, accommodation N4 million, vehicle loan N8 million, furniture allowance N6 million, utility N607, 920, vehicle maintenance N1.5 million, entertainment N911, 880 and leave allowance N202, 640.
The minister also receives N506, 600 for personal assistants, N1.5 million for domestic staff, N303, 960 for newspapers and N6 million as severance gratuity.
For their parts, ministers of state get each N1.9 million as basic salary, N3.9 million for accommodation, N7.7 million for vehicle loan, N5.8 million for furniture, N587, 274 for utility, N1.4 million for vehicle maintenance, N587, 274 for entertainment and N195,758 for leave allowance.
The junior ministers also receive N489, 395 for personal assistants, N1.4 million for domestic staff, N293, 637 for newspapers and N5.8 million as severance gratuity.
In addition, the minister is entitled to N35, 000 as duty tour allowance (DTA) while minister of state receives N30, 000 per day.For foreign trips, a minister receives $1,000 per day while a minister of state receives$900.

M nt surprised.dey made d office lucrative wit immunities,freedom 2 steal n walk away freely n so many nonsense.na only God go fit save dis nation sef.and 2 pay graduates 20k a month na waec.

And we have over 40 of them to boot.
Including
Personal assistant to minister
Deputy personal assistant
Assistant to deputy personal assistant
Secretary to personal assistant
Special adviser
Personal assistant to special adviser. .......and so on