Just last week, the nation was "virtually" agog with the news that the members of the National Assembly were to be paid 8.64billion naira for wardrobe allowance. There was some sort of outrage that 469 nigerians were to share 8.64billion naira just to buy clothes while the rest of over 169million nigerians were to probably hail them. Every dic and harry tried to give a piece of their mind and threat. It however comes as a surprise that the Senate President Bukola Saraki was able to douse the tension with a con man tweet. Today, everything seems to be back to normal and business as usual. The NASS members are about to 'get alert' and we have all gone to sleep, waiting for the next news to attack, criticize and trend. Here is what Saraki tweeted. "Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation & fiscal Commission was in my office to clarify wardrobe allowance. Amount is N506,600 per Sen". Now, this got the majority concluding that the wardrobe allowance for senators is N506,600 and not N25million again. What people are now saying is that even N506,600 is too much. What is funny is that Saraki tweeted the full meaning of RMAFCO but decided to abbreviate Senator as Sen and FAILED to tell us the frequency of the N506,600.
When the smart ones decided to ask for the frequency of N506,600. Information filtered in from God knows where that the wardrobe allowance is 25% of annual basic for the Senators, and most people have settled for that rubbish. Only a MUGU will believe that 25% of a Nigerian Senator's annual basic salary is N506,600. Are you a MUGU? We are to believe that a Senators collects N2,026,400 per annum. In most organisations, allowances are calculated as a percentage of ANNUAL not monthly, so if we are told 25%, it means we are to believe that our senators earn N2,026,400 per annum basic. That is around N170,000 per month. Even a mad man should not believe this! Unfortunately, the merry-go-round that Saraki and his cohorts have taken us through is dividing the wardrobe allowance to MONTHLY calculation and selling it to us, with plausible deniability that they take N506,600 per Sen. N506,600 X 12months X 4years = N24,316,800 This is what caused the disturbing rumbling, and i hope our eyes are not taken away from the goal of slashing it. BTW, how much is PMB and PYO's wardrobe allowance?


Also, on President Buhari stating that he met the treasury virtually empty. He is very correct, only that our education and common sense in this country is just so poor. The word "virtually/virtual" means nearly: almost, but not quite. being something in practice: being something in effect even if not in reality or not conforming to the generally accepted definition of the term. Someone argued that there is about $30billion available, nobody denied/denies that. It is the fact of a 7trillion naira debt that cancels out the so called $30billion. Common sense shows that if you have $30billion in hand and a debt of about $35billion(7trillion naira). It VIRTUALLY means you have zero/empty when you balance. Only a foolish person fails to take note of his debt. It is akin to the ailing states to fail to note the debts of salaries they owe workers and others and be making noise about having money or allocation. In this, the President has not erred but mainly spoken with common sense, the treasury is VIRTUALLY empty.

cc: lalasticlala, theVoice, midolian, barcanista, theOtherView, PassingShot

Eyaa

Very good write-up. Surprised not to see this on front page. Abi dem lalasticlala dey sleep?