Nigeria is home to numerous controversies. Everything — from police arrests to national budgets — is more often than not either controversial or scandalous. Just three weeks ago, for instance, Yahaya Bello, Governor of Kogi State, was reported to have sacked his cabinet ministers only to reverse the decision after 10 minutes. But despite the never-ending theatre of absurdity, few matters in this country have been subjected to as much controversy as what federal lawmakers make, after making the law.

A 2015 report by Premium Times, based on remuneration approved by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), states that all senators get N2.14 billion annually in salaries and allowances, leaving each with N19.66 million a year. This analysis “did however not include the illegal but hefty quarterly allowances lawmakers pay themselves”, known as office running cost.

A STRING OF DISCREPANCIES

The following year, Sahara Reporters published a report obtained by the Economic Confidential magazine, with similar figures. The report claimed to contain the legitimate remuneration of federal lawmakers, in compliance with the statutory approval of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). While the entire Red Chambers gulped N1.85billion over the year, an average senator was said to have earned N12.76 million, covering both annual basic salary and regular allowances, and excluding non-regular allowances such as furniture, severance gratuity, estacodes and so on.

However, we have seen more astronomical claims. For instance, last year, Itse Sagay, a Professor and Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), said from information available to him, “a Nigerian Senator earns about N29 million a month and over N3 billion a year”. He provided a comprehensive breakdown of the lawmaker’s monthly pay, having a basic salary of N2.48 million and several millions-worth of allowances.

Following this disclosure, Bukola Saraki, Senate President, agreed to meet with members of the Socio-Economic and Accountability Project (SERAP) to discuss details of senators’ salaries and allowances. However, after the meeting, Timothy Adewale, SERAP’s Deputy Director, lamented that the promise was not kept. He merely referred his guests to the National Assembly website “which contained vague information on the senators’ emoluments”.

Similar to Sagay’s claim is that of Areoye Oyebola, Initiator and Chairman of the Movement for Nigeria’s Total Transformation, in October 2017 that “A senator, not minding the grinding poverty of Nigerians, earns $1.7 million a year [N612 million using the present exchange rate], which is far higher than the $400,000 yearly income of the United States’ President, whose stupendous country is the richest in the world.” He further said a 90% cut in their salaries would still leave them richer than their counterparts in the US and UK. A particular columnist has in fact asserted: “It is a known fact that Nigerian Lawmakers are the highest paid in world.”

THE SENATE’S RESPONSE

Besides vaguely dismissing the assertions flying from various corners with a wave of the hand, the Senate actually responded in considerable detail as far back as 2015. This response is contained a document titled ‘‘Legislators’ Salaries and Allowances – A Cross-Country Comparison’ and prepared by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILS), an organ of the National Assembly.

The document compares the salaries and allowances of Nigerian senators to those of lawmakers in eight other countries, and, instructively, figures from Nigeria happen to be the lowest in the file. It states that Nigerian senators get a basic annual salary of $10,132 (N3.1 million) and other allowances totalling $174,829 (N53.5 million) – making $184,961 (N56.6 million). One obvious flaw in this document is that while it adds huge sums constituting the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to the pay of lawmakers from India, Tanzania, Kenya and Philippines, it stated “not applicable” to Nigerian lawmakers.

Also, in 2017, for the first time, the National Assembly released a breakdown for its annual budget, totalling a perfect N125 billion. According to the breakdown, the senators get N1.86 billion for salaries and wages, with N17 million going to each lawmaker. What is, however, suspicious about this document is that there is no mention of allowances under the sub-headings for the Senate and the House of Representatives. We only have allowances for legislative aides, the National Assembly Service Commission, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and the NIL.

Interestingly, there is also no mention of the words “domestic staff”, “wardrobe”, “recess”, “entertainment”, “estacode” and “constituency” – terminologies used by the NILS in its breakdown of the allowances received by Nigerian lawmakers. Ditto for the words “accommodation” (except once for legislative aides), “vehicle loan”, and “severance gratuity”. It almost appears there was a deliberate attempt to bury the many allowances and their implication in stranger, imprecise terms – such as “total goods and non-personal service” to which was allocated N21.1 billion for the Senate alone, or “purchase of utility vehicles” for which the senators got N2.6 billion.

UNVEILING OF AN EPIC RUNNING COST!

The latest addition to the discussion is the bombshell from Shehu Sani, the senator representing Kaduna Central at the National Assembly. In an interview he granted to The News Magazine earlier this month, he revealed that he and his colleagues receive over N750,000 as basic monthly salary. But this is like saying students of Obafemi Awolowo University pay only N90 as accommodation levy – when they also pay an additional N2,500 as maintenance charge!

Likewise, according to him, the senators also receive N13.5 million monthly as running cost, in addition to a consolidated salary, various allowances, and an annual constituency fund of N200 million (which has been poorly accounted for or not accounted for at all). This revelation confirmed earlier speculations that senators get N41.5 million quarterly as running cost, which is nowhere to be found in the published 2017 NASS budget.

SO FAR, WHAT EXACTLY DO THEY EARN?

So, based on what we know so far, how much exactly is the legitimate pay of our senior lawmakers? Well, using figures from the National Assembly itself – i.e. 2015 figures from the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILS) – they make N56.6 million every year when we factor in consolidated salaries and regular allowances. However, once we add the monthly running cost of N13.5 million, what we have is a yearly takehome pay of N218.6 million.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/all-the-data-the-earnings-of-nigerian-senators-%E2%80%95-how-much-and-how-fair/