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Why Legislators’ Pay Turns Jumbo • 469 Federal Lawmakers Gulp N339bn In 4 Years • Actual Salary (On Pay Slip) Only N18.245bn • N45m Per Senator Per Quarter (N720m In 4 Years) • N42m Per House Member Per Quarter (N672m In 4 Years) • N4,881,394,960 To Maintain 109 Senators • N13,364,450,550 To Maintain 360 House Members WHY do the people worry really, when it will cost oil-rich nation, Nigeria, a paltry
N338.6 billion to maintain the 469 members of the federal legislature
constitutionally domiciled in the nation’s capital, Abuja. The actual figure is N338,645,845,510 of Nigeria’s (taxpayers’) money) to maintain the 469 parliamentarians in Abuja. This is how the legislators, who will assist President Goodluck Jonathan in his
‘transformation agenda’, will spend what is controversially referred to as “25 per cent of the national budget” in four years. This figure, which covers salaries and some allowances, does not include
differential pays and other perquisites of office. Nor does the figure that the CBN governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, once
complained about ahead of the 7th Assembly, include expenditure on duty tours,
estacode and other oversight functions that affect attendance all the time, even
as the media draw attention to alleged absenteeism in the bi-cameral legislature
in Abuja. But only a trained eye, with some ability to read financial information on paper,
can see these figures. The ordinary citizen’s unquantitative analytical eye can only see N18.245 billion, which is the actual salary projected to be paid to the
federal lawmakers in four years. This is so because the rest of what is normally marked as, “jumbo pay” will surface really in form of quarterly allowances the two chambers approved for
themselves and called “running cost quarterly allowances. ” The breakdown is: N42 million for every member of the (lower) House,
amounting to N168 million per annum, or N672 million in four years. Similarly, the very “distinguished senator” will go home with N720 million in four years (N45m per quarter, or N180m per annum). However, what will reflect on the pay slips of the lawmakers would be the
statutory salary, which will come to a meagre N18.245 billion for the two
chambers in four years. Of these statutory figures, N4,881,394,960 will be spent on the 109 senators
while the remaining N13,364,450,550 will be spent to maintain the 360
members of the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)
— the legal body that has responsibility to fix this salary — has since July 2009, worked it out the salary thus: According to the law the legislators have endorsed, a senator earns an annual
emolument of N8,206,920 while a member of the House of Representatives takes
home N6,352, 680. Therefore, the cumulative emolument of a senator for four years amounts to
N32,827,680. In addition, each of the 109 senators will pocket another
N11,145,200 in allowances described by the RMAFC as non-regular and can be
collected one-off at the beginning of the tenure. The total emolument for a year includes the basic salary, which stands at
N2,026,400 for a senator and N1,985,212 for a House member and some regular
allowances for vehicle maintenance, fuelling, house maintenance, domestic staff,
entertainment, utilities, constituency, newspapers and periodicals. The non-regular allowances for each senator include accommodation
(N3,039,600), furniture allowance (N3,039,600) and vehicle loan (N5,066,000). In addition, each senator is entitled to an annual leave allowance of N202,640 or
N810,560 in four years. In this connection, it will be N44,783,440 to take care of a senator in the next
four good years or just N4,881,394,960 to take care of Nigeria’s 109 senators. In the House of Representatives, a member will earn N25,410,720 in four years,
in addition to non-regular allowances totaling N10,918,668.75 plus four years ’ leave grant of N794,085. This translates into each House member earning N37,123,473.75 in the next four
years, as each is entitled to N6,352,680 in yearly emolument. Non-regular allowances of the House members include accommodation
N2,977,818.75; furniture (N2,977, 818.75) and vehicle allowance of
N4,693,031.25. At the rate of N198,521.25 per annum, the leave allowance for
each member in four years will be N794,085. Taken together, a member of the House is expected to earn N37,123,473.75. So,
the 360 members will earn N13,364,450,550 from the national treasury in the
next four years. In the interim, after a successful four years, there awaits the “hard-working” 469 lawmakers what they call “severance allowance ”. In this regard, each ‘distinguished senator’ will go back home with 300 per cent of his annual basic salary. severance benefit. The same applies to each House
member. Consequently, the President of the Senate will take away N7,452,727.50; the
Deputy Senate President N6,927,500.25 and other senators N6,079,200 each,
respectively. In the House, the RMAFC approves N7,431,330 for the Speaker; N6,861,102.75 for
the Deputy Speaker and N5,955,637,50 each for other members. As a result, both members of the federal legislature and the RMAFC always quote
these statutory figures to inquirers, who approach them for information on the
legislators’ take home pay. Thus, what the House allegedly took N50 billion loans from the UBA and First
Bank to finance are not statutory earnings from the RMAFC.