NIGERIANS that have 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 other
categories.
Investigation by our correspondent on Monday
showed that senators’ allowances totalled
N18,642,880 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.
Each senator or a member of the House of
Representatives is entitled to 19 different allowances.
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
annual salaries.
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.
Vehicle maintenance and fuelling allowance is 75 per
cent; domestic staff, 75 per cent; entertainment, 30
per cent; utilities, 30 per cent; wardrobe, 25 per cent;
newspapers, 15 per cent; house maintenance, five
per cent; and personal assistants, 25 per cent.
For a senator, therefore, the vehicle maintenance and
fuelling allowance adds up to N1,519,800; domestic
staff, N1, 519,800; entertainment, N607,920; utilities,
N607,920; wardrobe, N506,600; newspapers,
N303,960; house maintenance, N101,320;
constituency, N5,066,000; personal assistant,
N506,600.
For a member of the House of Representatives, the
vehicle maintenance and fuelling allowance comes
up to N1,488,909.40; domestic staff, N1,488,909.40;
entertainment, N595,563.75; utilities, 595,563.75;
wardrobe, N496,303.12; newspapers, N303,960;
house maintenance, N99,260.62; constituency,
N1,985,212.50; and personal assistant, N 496,303.12.
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.
Housing allowance is paid once a year. Furniture
allowance is paid once in four years and recess
allowance is paid when the lawmakers are on recess
and they go on recess four times in a year. Severance
allowance is at the end of the four-year tenure.
The housing allowance of a senator is N4,053,800.
The furniture allowance is N6,079,200. On annualised
basis, the furniture allowance is N1,519,800. The
recess allowance climbs to N810,560 if they go on
recess four times a year. The severance allowance is
N6,079,200. On annual basis, it comes down to
N1,519,800.
For Reps, the housing allowance is N3,970,425. The
furniture allowance is N5,955,637.50. Annually, the
furniture allowance comes down to N1, 488,909.38.
Also, recess allowance comes up to N794, 084. The
severance allowance is N5,955,637.50. On annual
basis, it comes down to N1,488,909.38.
There are other allowances that the lawmakers are
not paid directly but provided and paid for by the
government.
These are allowances for special assistants, security
and legislative aides. What this means is that those
engaged in these capacities are paid directly by the
government as the allowances cannot be claimed by
political office holders. These allowances apply to
senators and Reps.
Medical expenses are also borne by the government
when the lawmakers have need for the services.
The lawmakers are also entitled to tour duty
allowance and estacode whenever they travel out of
the country. For a senator, the tour duty allowance is
N37,000 per night while the estacode is $950 per
night.
For a member of the House of Representatives, the
tour duty allowance is N35,000 per night while the
estacode is $900 per night.
Although political office holders in the country are
among the highest paid government officials in the
world, our correspondent reports that the worry of
many Nigerians is not what they earn officially but
what accrues to them through self-appropriation and
corruption.
The budget of the National Assembly is never broken
into components and efforts to get them to break
down the budget have not yielded the required result
even after the invocation of the Freedom of
Information Act.
Lawmakers are known to collect huge quarterly
allocations, some of which are ostensibly designated
for constituency projects. The constituency allowance
is different from the constituency project fund.
Constituency allowance is paid for the maintenance
of constituency office and contact while constituency
project fund are appropriated to enable the
lawmakers to execute projects in their
constituencies.
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The slowpoke senator referring a journalist to the bank to confirm how much they earn should kindly come and defend this, cuz he was spewing thrash then like they earn almost same thing with corpers... Awon ole alagbada, imagine this only allowance not to talk of their salaries and other underground funds

Wonders shall never end.

Representathieves, Senathieves = Legislathieves

owk.tz their time.....u guyz got no problem buh be sure dt one day,bush meat go catch hunter

i think it's time to slash all d alawee by 3

Allowance ish

Speechless that's how u make me feel

And minimum wage is still a paltry 17k,our leaders are wicked,its time for nigerians to say No.

Nigeria oh Nigeria.