Salary And Allowances Of NASS Members Revealed

The controversy over the monthly salary of a Nigerian lawmaker has
finally been laid to rest with a formal disclosure of what the
legislators earn. The National Institute of Legislative Studies, NILS,
apparently worried by growing public outcry against the Nigerian
lawmakers, on Friday released a set of documents, showing what
constitutes the earnings of the 109 Senators and 360 members of the
Nigerian House of Representatives.

National Assembly
The documents, which were made available to Vanguard in Abuja on
Friday, indicated that the Nigerian lawmakers earn perhaps one of the
least salaries among legislators in the world, as against the notion
that their pay was outrageous.
Apart from releasing global comparative figures drawn from nine
countries, the NILS also gave a breakdown of what constitutes the
monthly take-home pay of each Nigerian lawmaker. The figure shows that
while a Nigerian Senator gets an annual basic salary of N2,026,400,00
a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives goes home with
N1,985,212, 50 per year.
But beyond that a Senator takes home a bouquet of allowances which
hike their salary to N12, 902, 360.00 while their House of
Representatives counterpart goes home with N9,525,985.50 annually.
Thus, for the four-year tenure which the lawmaker stay in the NASS,
the Nigerian government spends a total of N1, 406,357,240.00 as basic
salary on the 109 Senators and N3,428,994,780.00 on the 360 members of
the House of Representatives.
The breakdown of the allowances are on: Vehicle fuelling/maintenance,
Constituency, Domestic Staff, Personal Assistant, Entertainment,
Recess, Utilities, Newspaper/Periodicals, Houses Maintenance,
Wardrobe, Estacode, Duty Tour, which attract more money available to
the lawmakers than their basic salaries.
Beyond that, the lawmakers earn special amount in every four-year
period on Accommodation, vehicle loan, furniture, and severance
allowance, which make every Senator to pocket N24,090,000.00 and a
House of Representatives member to go home with N23,822,00.00 within
the same period.
Thus for every four year which a lawmaker stays in the NASS, the
Federal Government spends N2,625, 810,000.00 on accommodation, vehicle
loans, furniture and severance gratuity on the 109 senators and
N8,575,920,000.00 on the 360 House of Representatives members.
This payment brings the total expenditure of the government to N33,
992, 360 for the senators and N33,347, 985, 50 on the members of the
HoR. The figures are lower when compared to what their counterparts in
eight other countries earn.
But the monies Nigerian lawmakers earn from their oversight functions
and other sources make them big earners.
A global comparison released by the NILS shows that lawmakers in the
Philippines earn the highest annual basic salary of $4, 497,957,
followed by their counterparts in the United States of America where a
Senator goes home with $3,409,422 while a member of the US House of
Representatives takes $1,429,909 home annually.
This is followed by lawmakers in Kenya who earn $968,013 per annum
followed by their counterparts in Australia who take home $646,230
while those in the United Kingdom go home with £494,285.43.
The list is followed by lawmakers from India, who earn $474,484,
Singapore with $253,469, and Tanzania with $230,961.
It will be recalled that the Nigerian government has been spending a
total of N150 billion per year on the NASS but has been forced to step
it down to N120 billion this year following rising outcry that the
lawmakers are taking too much from the Federation Account leaving
little for other sectors.

-Vanguard