Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate, has made public the amount members of the National Assembly receive as salaries and emoluments.
This information was revealed by the Senate president in a paper presented at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies’ First Distinguished Parliamentarians’ Lecture Series.
According to Lawan, a senator’s monthly salary is N1.5m, while a member of the House of Representatives is N1.3m. They also receive a quarterly office running allowance of N13m.
Lawan said, “The quarterly office allowance for legislators is what is erroneously conflicted with the monthly income to create confusion and mislead the Nigerians.
“The average office running cost for a senator is about N13m, while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N8m.”
Lawan also said the N13m and N8m quarterly operating costs for the Senate and House of Representatives are the lowest in any democratic country.
As outlined by the President of the Senate, these allowances include local and international travel costs, consultation of professional services, medical services, office stationery/computers, consumables, books, newspapers, magazines, maintenance of motor vehicles, and office equipment.
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Wide-spread reactions have, however, followed these revelations.
Khadijat Muhammed said, “In a year, a senator and rep member from each constituency brings home 84 million naira, while governor’s bring home 200 million naira as a security vote making it 286 million naira yearly yet we cry of lack of development and security here and there. Why blaming the wrong person”
Jasper Aniet Louis wrote “Apart from receiving the budget from executive & clearing minister’s nominee with few oversight functions, what other serious government business the senators are doing to get that huge amount of money when same government is paying a worker 30k a month?”
Auwal A.A also asked “ Pls, how much is the Primary/Secondary School Teacher’s Salary per month?
Do they receive books, travel, magazines, vehicles or computers allowances??”
Dr. Joshua Ife said “The money is not much sha, what is 1.8 million naira salary and 8 million naira offices quarterly allowance in a country with minimum wage of 30k”.
