No wonder most states can't pay wages. Too much waste at the federal level and too much wasted on governance generally.

N’Assembly Members to Get N8.64bn as Wardrobe Allowance Next Week

16 Jun 2015


Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja
The newly sworn in members of the National Assembly will smile home with a whooping N8.64 billion as wardrobe allowance next week, it was learnt last night.

The sum is aside other allowances such as furniture, housing and vehicle, which the lawmakers are entitled to.
It was also learnt that the management of the National Assembly is currently allocating offices to the 469 federal lawmakers in both chambers ahead of their resumption on June 23 from the two-week recess that they embarked on June 10.

The N8.64 billion wardrobe allowance translates to N17.5 million for each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives and N21.5 million for each of the 109 senators.

While the wardrobe allowance, just like the furniture and vehicle allowances, will cover the entire four-year tenure of the 469 federal lawmakers, their housing allowances are paid on a yearly basis.

Based on the approval of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the housing allowance for political office holders is usually 200 per cent of their annual salaries, the furniture allowance is 300 per cent of annual salaries, while a motor vehicle loan is pegged at 400 per cent of their annual salaries.

Accordingly, each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy, will be paid N4,052,800 as housing allowance.
This sum will be paid to them every year, translating to N433,649,600 as housing allowance to be paid to the Senate annually, while the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President will be provided accommodation by the federal government.

On the other hand, each member of the House of Representatives will be paid N3,970,425 as housing allowance upon assumption of office.

This implies that the 358 representatives aside the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, will collect a total of N1,421,412,150 as housing allowance. Like that of the Senate, the speaker and deputy speaker will be given accommodation by the federal government.

Following the monetisation of entitlements of public officials undertaken by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the lawmakers lost the right to occupy houses built and maintained by the government.

Hence, the federal government sold the houses previously occupied by the lawmakers to them.
Since the principal officers of the Sixth National Assembly benefited from the sale of the houses, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is currently building new ones for the four presiding officers of both chambers.

On the furniture allowance, each of the senators will take away N6,079,200 from the budget of the National Assembly, while the furniture for both the Senate president and his deputy will be provided by the government.
The total sum to be paid to the 107 senators as furniture allowance will be N650,474,400.

In the House of Representatives, each member will be paid N5,955,637.50 as furniture allowance.
This means that the 358 members will collect a total of N2,132,118,225 for furniture.

On the vehicle loan, each of the senators is entitled to N8,105,600, while each House member is entitled to N7,940,850.50, meaning that the 107 senators will collectively take N867,299,200 as vehicle loans while the 358 House members will get N2,842,824,479 for their vehicles.

biafransoul:
Waiting for the change apologist to come and defend this one. Is this the meaning of the change Nigerians voted for? Shame to all these fraudsters that called themselves change agents

Korrection:
We are in trouble.

rabimlomo:


Must you always show your hatred and deep rooted pain on every thread Why are you this pathetic? This is an issue that has nothing or little to do with party. All those useless legislators are in ONE PARTY when it comes to this issue

KinkyAngela:
Bloody thieves

FOLYKAZE:
Reading this sometime make me sympatize with Boko haram. Only if they can stream their struggle against this buffons in the green and red chambers. I wish I can blow this nigga up with a bomb when they are seating.

DaGC:
I keep telling people that any government official slashing his/her official salary is just trying to look sympathetic to Nigerians and in turn get popularity.

The salaries have never been the problem. Allowances, that's the sh*t right there.