SHOCKER: Senators allowances 9 times higher than basic pay

Nigerians who expressed surprise that each senator receives N506,600 per annum as wardrobe allowance may be in for a shocker as the lawmakers receive far more allowances under different categories.

Investigation showed that senators’ allowances totaled N18,642,880 (18million +) on annual basis. In all, the allowance each senator receives is nine times more than his annual salary.

A senator’s salary is pegged at N2,026,400 per annum.

But Senators and House of Reps members are entitled to 19 different allowances...

According to PUNCH, these allowances are for vehicle maintenance and fuelling; domestic staff, entertainment, utilities, personal assistant, constituency, wardrobe, house maintenance, newspapers, recess, accommodation, furniture, severance, tour duty, estacode, special assistant, security, legislative aide and medical.

These allowances are specified in the Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders prepared by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.

On an annual basis, the 107 senators receive N1,994,788,160 as allowances. Only 107 senators are eligible for these allowances. The President of the Senate and Deputy President of the Senate receive fewer allowances because most of their needs are fully provided for by the state.

For members of the House, the annual allowances payable are about eight times higher than their pay.

While the annual salary of a House member is pegged at N1,985,212.50, the annual allowances add up to N15,286,135.25. This means that the 358 members of the House (excluding the speaker and the deputy speaker) get N5,472,436,419.5 annually in allowances.

The allowances, however, are in categories. Some are tagged regular while others are tagged irregular allowances.

Regular allowances are those that are paid on monthly basis along with the monthly salaries while irregular allowances are paid at other intervals, ranging from annual to once in four years.

There are also other allowances not included in this calculation that are paid not at any fixed periods but as many times as they occur in the year.

The allowances are calculated as percentages of the annual salaries. While some are higher than the annual salaries, others are lower.

Basically, both senators and Reps are paid the same percentages of their salaries as allowances, except the constituency allowance where senators are paid 250 per cent while Reps get 100 per cent of their annual salaries.

The irregular allowances include housing allowance, 200 per cent of the Reps annual salaries; furniture allowance, 300 per cent; recess allowance, 10 per cent and severance allowance, 300 per cent.

In all, these guys are just smiling to the banks while many Nigerians can't even earn a decent living.


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