Following the revelations by Senator Shehu Sani, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as “running cost”, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Professor Itse Sagay, threatens to expose more on the earnings of the leadership in the National Assembly. But his earlier exposure on what Senators “earn” was massively exaggerated.
Sani had said in an interview that the running cost was in addition to over N700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances of each Senator.
In an interview with Punch, Sagay said Nigerians would be flabbergasted if he reveals what principal officers of the National Assembly, including the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and the majority and minority leaders of both chambers earn.
“There are many things the press doesn’t know yet. If you come to know the allowances that the leadership of the two houses are getting… My God! It will blow up the country. What is the Senate President getting? It is not the ordinary N13m.
“What does he get as Senate President? What is the leader of the House getting, what is the deputy leader of the House getting? What is the Deputy Senate President getting? What are the minority leaders getting in both houses? Go and find out. It is an explosive stuff, I tell you. Eventually, I will come out with the figures. I am working on them now. When I am ready, I will come out with them.”
Sagay’s earlier claims
Sagay and the National Assembly have been involved in war of words in the past over what the Senators earn as salaries and allowance.
Delivering the Nigerian Society of International Law (NSIL) Public Lecture titled “The Many Afflictions of Anti-Corruption Crusade in Nigeria” as a guest lecturer, he alleged that from the information he had gathered, a Nigerian Senator earns about N29 million a month and over N3 billion a year.
“Basic salary N2,484,245.50; hardship allowance, 1,242, 122.70; constituency allowance N4, 968, 509.00; furniture allowance N7, 452, 736.50; newspaper allowance N1, 242, 122.70.
“Wardrobe allowance N621,061.37; recess allowance N248, 424.55; accommodation 4,968,509.00; utilities N828,081.83; domestic staff N1,863,184.12; entertainment N828,081.83; personal assistant N621,061.37; vehicle maintenance allowance N1,863,184.12; leave allowance N248,424.55; severance gratuity N7, 425,736.50; and motor vehicle allowance N9, 936,982.00.”
His outburst made the Senate describe him as “senile, jaded, rustic and outdated Professor of Law” who may be “under influence of substance”.
Responding, Senate Spokesman, Sabi Abdullahi, accused Sagay of making Hate Speeches against the National Assembly.
“Ordinarily, we would ignore Sagay whose statements and attitude present him like a rascal and sadist instead of a former university teacher. However, his last speech in Lagos during which he was reeling out false and exaggerated figures about the salaries and allowances of legislators and also lied about the passage of anti-corruption bills showed that he just deliberately set out to undermine the legislative institution and lower its reputation in the estimation of right thinking members of the society and we therefore believe we should put him in his rightful place.”
He further said Sagay should stop spreading rumour about salaries and allowances, but instead, inquire “facts from Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) which is the body constitutionally charged with the responsibility of fixing salaries and allowances of all public officials.”
The Senate has responded to Sani’s revelation, saying it’s nothing new, and the figures given by Sani are contained in various line items and expenditure heads of the budget of the National Assembly which had been made public.
It said if people had looked critically at the budget, they would have seen that various line items “like traveling, medicals, consultancy and the rest were captured in the budget and they were the funds divided for each Senator’s use.
“Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries.”
Fact-checking Sabi Abdullahi’s claims
In 2017 for the first time after persuasion, the National Assembly publicly published its budget raising the cost from N115bn in 2016 to N125bn.
The Management of the National Assembly was allocated N14.9 billion, with N6.7 billion for personnel cost, N6.2 billion for overheads and N2 billion for its capital budget.
The Senate’s budget was put at N31.4 billion, of which N1.856 billion was allocated to personnel (salary) cost.
The budget of the Senate also assigned N4.4 billion for capital spending and N25.1 billion for overhead costs.
The House of Representatives got a total of N49 billion, with N4.9 billion for personnel cost (N13.7 million per member per annum), N39.6 billion for overheads and N4.5 billion for capital projects.
Also, N2.4 billion was proposed for the National Assembly Service Commission, with N961 million for personnel cost, N1.1 billion for overheads and N310 million for capital, while legislative aides got N9.6 billion, with N8.9 billion for personnel, N535 million for overheads and N150 million as the capital component.
The clearly stated Over Head cost when simply divided among Senators will come to over 20 million naira for running their office, but as there are Principal Officers the cost per average Senator may land at 13.5 million. It is hoped Professor Sagay does not simply want to do the remaining maths and publish it as an explosion.
In 2016, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), also revealed what the Federal lawmakers earn as basic salary and allowance.
The remuneration packages include annual salaries, accommodation, vehicle maintenance and fuel, Personal Assistants, House maintenance, domestic staff, entertainment and utility allowances. Others allowances are; Constituency allowance, Annual Leave, Hardship allowance, wardrobe, newspapers and responsibility allowances.
A look at the publications shows that each Senator has an annual salary of N2.02m while a member of the House of Representative receives N1.98mn as annual basic salary.
The basic salary of the Senate President is N2.48mn while that of the Speaker of House of Rep is N2.47mn. The Deputy Senate President has N2.30mn as annual basic salary while his counterpart, Deputy Speaker earns N2.28mn annually.
In addition to the annual basic salary, each member of the National Assembly receives 200% of the annual salary for accommodation, 75% for vehicle maintenance, 25% for Personal Assistants, 5% for house maintenance, 75% for domestic staff, 30% for both entertainment and utilities.
Others are, 25% for wardrobe, 15% for newspapers and responsibility allowance of between 10, 7, and 5% respectively as the case may be on the position of the legislator.
There are also Non-Regular allowances Federal legislators are entitled which include furniture and severance gratuity which are due only once in four years.
Other non-regular allowances include Estacode allowances which is paid in US Dollars for foreign trips and Duty Tour allowance which is paid in Naira for local trips within Nigeria.
