976 legislators received N12bn,
passed 601 bills in 2 years
Lawmakers in the 36 State Houses of
Assembly have received about N12
billion in salaries and allowances in
the first two years of their tenure and
passed 601 bills, most of which were
initiated by the governors, Daily Trust
investigations revealed.
There are 976 members in the state
legislatures, soaking up about N6
billion per annum in emoluments.
A state legislator receives about N6
million per annum, comprising basic
salaries and other perquisites,
according to a Daily Trust analysis
based on records obtained from the
Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and
Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
The RMAFC documents were
obtained officially through a Freedom
of Information Act request filed by
this newspaper.
With these emoluments, a state
lawmaker earns more than 24 times
the country’s Gross Domestic Product
per person (GDP).
This means the legislator’s package
is 24 times what each Nigerian
citizen is worth when the nation’s
total wealth is shared by the
population.
According to RMAFC records, a state
legislator receives an annual basic
salary of N1.34 million;
accommodation, N802,335; vehicle
maintenance, N267,445; and recess
allowance, N133,772.
The lawmaker also receives, once in
four years, a vehicle loan of N5.3
million, furniture allowance of N2
million and N2.6 million as
severance gratuity.
Other yearly emoluments are
N334,306 for constituency allowance;
N334,306 for domestic staff;
N133,772 for utilities; and N66,861
as newspapers allowance.
In addition, the state lawmaker is
entitled to N25,000 as duty tour
allowance (DTA) per night and 600
US dollars estacode while on foreign
trips per night.
Principal officers of the assemblies
are entitled to responsibility
allowance, while the speaker and his
deputy are entitled to security and
robe allowances as well as special
assistants and legislative aides.
Each lawmaker is also entitled to
medicals and special assistants.
The cost of maintaining the state
lawmakers is coming to light four
months after Daily Trust published
details of similar fat-cat emoluments
enjoyed by their counterparts in the
Senate and House of Representatives,
who are on top of the global MPs’
salaries chart.
Executive bills
Daily Trust investigations revealed
that despite receiving over N12
billion from June 2011 to June 2013,
the lawmakers only passed 601 bills
into law.
They appear to be merely waiting to
rubber-stamp bills forwarded to them
by the executive, as most of the bills
passed in the two-year period were
annual appropriation bills and
supplementary budget bills submitted
by the state governors.
Also, there are many states whose
assemblies did not pass a single
individual member’s bill into law
within the period.
In the two years from June 2011 to
June 2012, the 202 state lawmakers
in the North West passed 122 bills
(Katsina State not included as details
are not available) and collected
N2.424 billion; while 176 legislators
from South West received N2.112
billion and passed 107 bills into law
(with the exception of those from
Ekiti, whose records could not be
obtained).
The 158 lawmakers from the South-
South, with the exception of Edo
where records have not been
obtained, had passed 69 bills into
law and received N1.896 billion as
salaries and allowances.
The North East has 156 state
assembly members, who passed 130
bills (with the exception of Borno)
after collecting N1.872 billion as
emoluments.
The North Central zone, with 158
legislators had collected N1.896
billion and passed into law 125 bills;
while the 128 lawmakers from South
East had passed 48 bills (with the
exception of those from Anambra and
Abia states whose records could not
be obtained) and received N1.536
billion as emoluments.
‘Stooges of governors’
Commenting on story, Malam Auwal
Musa Rafsanjani, the Executive
Director, Civil Society Legislative
Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), said the
lawmakers lack capacity to perform
their functions.
“In Nigeria, the state Houses of
Assembly have turned themselves to
be the stooges of their state
governors as a result of their
weaknesses,” he said.
“The state legislatures have failed to
ensure full implementation of budgets
passed by them by the governors.
After reviewing the performance of
state Houses of Assembly in the
current dispensation, human rights
activists, civil society organisations,
eminent lawyers and leaders of some
political parties, have declared them
‘dead’”.
The CISLAC boss said also that “it is
very unfortunate that the doctrine of
separation of powers enshrined in the
amended 1999 Constitution only
exists on paper as the state
legislatures have become mere
extensions of the executive arm of
government, because they are more
of toothless bulldogs. Some speakers
of the states legislatures and other
lawmakers have turned themselves to
rubber-stamp to the governors.
“For instance, in many states
lawmakers have failed to call their
governors to order over their shoddy
implementation of the state’s
budgets, unbudgeted spending,
misconduct, abandonment of capital
projects, looting and stealing of
public fund etc….
“It on record that most of the state
assemblies they don’t hold public
hearing, debates and deliberation on
key vital important issues that affect
their people due to fear of the
governors and their incapacitation
and inexperience in legislative work.”
Daily Trust contacted the chairman,
Conference of Nigerian Speakers, who
is also the Speaker of Gombe State
House of Assembly, Alhaji Inuwa
Garba, for comments, but he said he
had no time to answer questions on
this story.
He asked our reporter to direct his
questions to individual speakers of
the state Houses of Assembly.
http://dailytrust.info/index.php/top-stories/10813-i-n-v-e-s-t-i-g-a-t-i-o-n-how-state-lawmakers-collect-billions-in-salaries

That is why they kill to get there.

Naa wa ooo
When will God purnish all this people sef?