By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Controversy has trailed the monthly pay of Nigerian lawmakers as serving legislator faults figures released by the agency in charge of fixing salaries and allowances of public servants.
It is not clear what a member of the Nigerian Legislative House earns monthly as it has been shrouded in secrecy.
An activist and former Senator, Shehu Sani, had claimed that members of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly receive a monthly running cost of ₦13.5m ($8,231) in addition to a ₦750,000 salary ($457).
In response to the allegation, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) on Tuesday claimed that each member of the Senate receives total monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860 ($648.71).
The Commission gave the breakdown of the cumulative take-home pay for lawmakers to include:
Basic salary of N168,866:70
Motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance of N126,650.
Personal assistant, N42,216:66.
Domestic staff, N126,650.
Entertainment, N50,660.
Utilities, N50,660.
Newspapers/periodicals, N25,330.
Wardrobe allowance, N42,216,66.
House maintenance, N8,443.33.
Constituency allowance, N422,166:66.
However, an opposition lawmaker and the Senator representing Kano South, Sumaila Kawu of the New Nigerian People Party (NNPP) said he takes home N21 ($12,805) million every month, although his monthly salary is about N1 million.
Senator Kawu said this in an interview with British Broadcasting Hausa Service on Wednesday morning.
The N21 million he quoted is a wide margin from figures quoted by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
“The amount of salary received per month is less than N1 million. If there are cuts, it comes back to about N600,000.
“In the senate, each senator is given N21 million every month as the cost of running his office,” Kawu said.
This comes amidst escalating poverty in the West African nation, with over 200 million population.
Young persons had recently mobilised in their large numbers to demonstrate against the policies of government that has heightened inflation, caused job losses amidst official corruption and insecurity.
Recently, the government approved a new minimum wage of N70,000 ($42.68) which has been described as grossly inadequate especially with the raft of inflation that is 3-decade high.
Last week, a former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused members of the National Assembly of fixing large salaries and allowances for themselves in contravention of extant laws.
“In your case, with all due respect, you’re not supposed to fix your salaries. But you decide what you pay yourself, the allowances that you give yourselves (including) newspaper allowances.
“You give yourselves all sorts of things, and you know it is not right. It is immoral. You are doing it, the Senate is doing it, and you are beating your chests about it.
“In some cases, the executive gives you what you’re not entitled to. You all got N200 million,” he told members of the House of Representatives in his Abeokuta home.
