Senator: Yes, Our Salaries are Outrageous



Amid the increasing criticism of the huge salaries and allowances of Nigeria's lawmakers, a senator (name withheld) has affirmed insinuations that their earnings are indeed outrageous.

The senator, who made this disclosure to THISDAY in Abuja, said he was of the utmost belief that his salary, along with those of his colleagues, is not justifiable.

The senator, who noted that the perceived outrageous salaries by senators were unnecessary plundering of the nation's resources, said rejecting the jumbo pay would be viewed as madness having found himself within the system.

Furthermore, the senator said the jumbo pay was part of the reason National Assembly's intervention in the ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which did not yield any fruitful result.

According to him, even though the demands of ASUU are highly provocative, unmerited and self-centred, members of the National Assembly Education Joint Committee lacked the effrontery to confront members of the union during recent meetings with them because of the consciousness of their seeming unmerited wages.

He said: "I believe what we earn is not justifiable. That is why ASUU is making unnecessary demands. I wonder why the federal government should reach an agreement with them on such demands. These are demands that are not made by lecturers anywhere in the world. If they are asking for well equipped libraries, laboratories or more conducive learning environment, it would have been understandable. But everything is about themselves.

"How can they be asking for extra pay because they have large classes? Is it not their responsibilities to teach whether a class is large or not? And in any case, who admitted the large class? But they are making these demands just because they know what we earn," he disclosed.

Also affirming this position, Senator Sola Akinyede, in a recent interview with THISDAY, said the executive should not only be blamed for high cost of governance, noting that the legislature also contributed largely to the problem. He added that the judiciary also has its own share of the blame.

Akinyede, who represented Ekiti South senatorial district in the Senate between 2007 and 2011, said he felt guilty having benefitted from such unjustifiable pay as a senator.

"High cost of governance does not only affect the executive, it also affects the legislature and the judiciary. I think what we should do is that heads of the three organs of government at every level along with leaderships of political parties should sit down and agree on how to reduce the cost of governance.

"Honestly, l think it's unfair. I'm also guilty of it because l benefitted from it as a senator. It's unfair for us elite to arrogate so much of the country's resources to ourselves and still expect economic development," Akinyede said.

Nigerian senators' salaries have been a subject of controversy since the inception of this democratic era. With alleged N2,484,245.50 as basic salary, a senator is alleged to be cruising home with a whopping N11 million as regular salaries and allowances and N27 million as quarterly allowances besides irregular allowances such as estacodes and duty tour allowances.

It was also alleged that the entire Senate leadership comprising 10 principal officers draw N1, 024,000,000 as quarterly allowance.

It was repeatedly published in local and foreign media that a Nigerian senator earns far higher than United States president, whose total salary per annum was $400,000. The situation is also the same in House of Representatives.

Reps receive N146m yearly not N29m, says ex-lawmaker

Former member of the House of Representatives Bashir Idris Nadabo has said the total yearly salaries and allowances received by each lawmaker is N146 million and not N29 million as reported by Daily Trust last week.

The Daily Trust reported, quoting official documents, that a House member is entitled to N29 million yearly, making him among the highest paid globally.

But Nadabo, who was a member of the House in 2003-2007, said the lawmakers collect much more than this amount. He said each member receives a monthly salary of N1.2 million and quarterly allowances of N33 million, making a total of N146.4 million yearly.

“During our time 2003-2007, we were receiving about N280,000 monthly salary and N8 million quarterly allocations. It was at the last quarter of our tenure that the allocation was raised from N8 million to N14 million,” Nadabo told Daily Trust in Abuja.

“During our time former Speaker Aminu Bello Masari did not yield to pressure to collapse the allowances as some of them are not paid until needed and applied for. It was during former Speaker Bankole that they collapsed these monies and paid upfront even when there is no need for its usage by the lawmakers like attending to the health needs of their families or constituency members. I think this is why the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) laments that the lawmakers are paying themselves padded allowances,” said the former lawmaker from Katsina State.

Nadabo also said the purchase of cars for the lawmakers meant for committee duties was wrong since each of them receives car loans.

“The cars were allocated to each member despite being paid the car loans. The records of those the cars were allocated to are there in the National Assembly with the chassis numbers against the names of the legislators they were allocated to.

It is however disturbing to see some of the cars bought at over N8 million being sold at car stand especially in Abuja
and Kaduna at between N5 million to N6 million,” he added.

GUSAU—Senator Kabir Marafa, representing Zamfara Central Zone, named by a national daily as one of the 24 Senators allegedly collecting N35 million as salaries monthly, has threatened to resign if it is proven that he actually collects such amount.

According to him, even though
the demands of ASUU are highly
provocative, unmerited and self-
centred, members of the National
Assembly Education Joint
Committee lacked the effrontery
to confront members of the
union during recent meetings
with them because of the
consciousness of their seeming
unmerited wages.

Consent: The said senator is highly hypocritical or simply insulting our intelligence.if he knew their pay is outrageous,why d f~ck didnt he raise it on the floor of the house,and sponsor a bill to reduce the monumental waste? He enyoys the loot and comes out to fool himself.tell him we are no fools

The senator, who noted that the
perceived outrageous salaries by senators were unnecessary
plundering of the nation's
resources, said rejecting the
jumbo pay would be viewed as
madness having found himself
within the system

goddyjay: .

Yungwizzzy: .

Ebig22: .

oh.dude:
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