NASS members’ salaries/emoluments: Unending raging controversies

OLAJIDE OMOJOLOMOJU examines the various controversies trailing the revelation of the emoluments of members of the Na­tional Assembly; the actual emolument ap­proved by the Revenue Mobilisation Alloca­tion and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the strident calls for the reduction in the emolu­ments and the stand of the federal lawmak­ers on such reduction.

For many years until recent­ly, what each senator of the Federal Republic and each member of the House of Representatives take home as sal­aries and emoluments have been shrouded in secrecy, leading to too many conjectures about how much each federal lawmaker takes home every month and annually.

Since the revelation of what fed­eral lawmakers earn as salaries and allowances, there have been stri­dent calls from all walks of life for a downward review of same.

But the higher the decibels of these calls, the more unconcerned the federal lawmakers, who have once been alleged by former gov­ernor of the Central Bank of Nige­ria (CBN), and now Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, of taking 25.41 per cent of Federal Govern­ment overhead.

Speaking under oath before members of the Senate Committee on Finance in 2010, Sanusi main­tained that “figures from the Budget Office show that total Federal Gov­ernment overhead is N36.2 billion while the National Assembly over­head is exactly 25.41 percent of the total government overhead.

That statement stoked more embers of controversy, leading to more calls for the full disclosure of what exactly federal lawmakers earn.

After a protracted debate and controversy over what members of Nigeria’s National Assembly take home as salaries and allowances, the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), finally released details of ‘the legiti­mate salaries and allowances of Na­tional Assembly members’.

The disclosure, which came in form of a release, signed by RM­FAC acting secretary, Usman I. Garndawa, stated that the details of the remuneration packages were provided “to avoid misinformation

 and misrepresentation of facts.”

Describing the lumping of all salaries and allowances into yearly totals as erroneous in the sense that some of the entitlements are “non-regular” and are paid only once in four years, RMAFC said that allow­ances accruable to federal lawmak­ers include: accommodation, which gave each senator N4 million while each member of the House of Rep­resentatives gets N3.97 million; vehicle loan of N8 million for each senator and N7.94 for each member of House of Representatives; furni­ture allowance of N6 million for each senator and N5.955 for each House member and severance gra­tuity of N6.09 million for each sen­ator and N5.955 million for each House of Representatives member.

Ironically, whether a lawmaker returns or not, he collects the sev­erance allowance at the end of eve­ry four years.

Vehicle loan and severance gra­tuities are paid only once in four years, while accommodation al­lowance was paid once every year.

Other annual allowances, ac­cording to the RMAFC release in­clude: motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance of N1.52 million for senators and N1.489 million for members of House of Represent­atives; and domestic allowance of N1.519 million for each senator and N1.488 million for each House member.

RMAFC also disclosed that federal lawmakers also earn allow­ances for personal assistants, with each senator taking home N506,600 while each member of the House of Representatives earn N496,303; for entertainment, it is N607,920, and N595,563 for each senator and member of the House of Represent­atives respectively and recess allow­ance for senators and members of the House of Representatives stood at N202,640 and N198,521 respec­tively.

Other allowances include: N607,920 and N397,042 for sena­tors and House members respec­tively for utilities; newspaper/peri­odicals allowance for each senator is N303,960, while each House mem­ber gets N297,781; senators earn N101,320 each for house mainte­nance, while their counterparts in the House get N99,260 each; while wardrobe allowance for senators is N506,600 and N496,303 for mem­bers of the House of Representa­tives.

Each senator earns as basic sal­ary N2,026,400 annually, amount­ing to N168,866.70 per month while each member of the House goes home with N 1,985,212.50 an­nually and N165,434.40 per month.

Apart from these, the lawmak­ers also go home with constitu­ency allowance of N5.066 million and N1.985 million for senators and House members respectively, which is paid to them on month­ly basis.

And only very few of them use the constituency allowance for what it was originally meant for – pro­vision of certain identified projects for their constituents. Many of them allegedly collect the constituency al­lowance and pocket same.

And of course, it is different sal­aries and allowances for the princi­pal officers of the National Assem­bly. While the Senate President earns N2.484 as basic annual sal­ary, the Speaker of the House goes home with N2.477. For the Senate President, constituency allowance is N7.431 million while the Speak­er gets N2.477 million, also payable every month.

And while the Senate Presi­dent gets paid N50,000 duty tour allowance and $1,300 estacode, the House Speaker receives N45,000 and $1,200 for duty tour allowance and estacode respectively, just as they also both get severance gra­tuity of N7.452 and N7.431 mil­lion respectively and vehicle loan of N9.936 million and N9.908 mil­lion respectively.

The Deputy Senate President also gets a basic salary of N2.309 million, constituency allowance of N5.772 million, severance gratuity of N6.927 million and vehicle loan of N9.236 million, even as he gets N42,000 for duty tour allowance and $1,100 as estacode.

All the federal lawmakers gets 10 per cent of their basic salaries as recess allowance, which is however paid once every year. They are also alleged to collect as sitting allow­ance at committee levels N20,000 per sitting. Thus, a lawmaker who belongs to as many as four or five committees could be raking in be­tween N80,000 and N100,000 with­in one week, if all the committees he belongs to sit within the week! Other allowances not specified by the RMAFC are medical, respon­sibility and security.

It is on this basis that Nigeri­ans are asking the question: Why collect sitting allowance when they get paid monthly salary for being in the National Assembly? Ironically, many of the lawmakers have been found to abscond from their duties most of the time, under one excuse or the other, yet they still get paid for doing nothing.

Garndawa said: “Regular allow­ances are paid regularly with basic salaries while non-regular allow­ances are paid as at when due. For instance, furniture allowance and severance gratuity are paid once in every tenure and vehicle allowance, which is optional, is a loan which the beneficiary has to pay before the end of tenure. It is therefore wrong and misleading to add up allowanc­es, irrespective of whether they are regular, refundable or non-regular as the regular annual emoluments of political public office holders.”

Dissociating itself from any other allowance apart from the above, RMAFC stated that “the commission also wishes to use this opportunity to state that any oth­er allowance(s) enjoyed by any po­litical, public office holders outside those provided in the Remunera­tion Act of 2008 is not known to the commission and the chief ac­counting officer should be held ac­countable.”

From the foregoing, the remu­neration as approved by RMAFC for each senator annually, exclud­ing estacodes of $1,200 per night (where applicable), Duty Tour Al­lowance of N45,000 per night and other sundry allowances paid as necessary, is about N19.66 mil­lion; while for each member of the House of Representatives, exclud­ing estacodes of $900 per night (where applicable), duty tour allow­ance of N35,000 per night and oth­er sundry allowances paid as neces­sary, it is N18.26 million.

In addition to this, each sena­tor and House of Representatives member collects N1.01 million and N1.488 million respectively for do­mestic staff annually. However, de­spite these mind-boggling take home, what the federal legislators pay as tax to the coffers of govern­ment is insignificant, as their tax­es are calculated based on their ba­sic salary. Salaries and allowances of the leadership of the two cham­bers of the National Assembly are slightly higher than what are enu­merated above.

Apart from these RMAFC ap­proved salaries and allowances as stated above, the federal lawmak­ers also pay themselves what they called ‘office running cost.’ They also receive constituency allow­ance, which very many of them see as their own share of the national cake.

How much this runs to, no­body has been able to say, as the lawmakers have kept mum over it, but in 2009, each senator went home with N192 million every four months while House of Represent­atives members carted home N140 million each. Insider sources told The AUTHORITY on Saturday that this bogus allowance has increased drastically overtime.

Towards the end of the lifespan of the Seventh National Assembly, under the leadership of Senator Da­vid Mark of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the noise by the gen­erality of Nigerians and civil society organisations, among others, forced the federal lawmakers to reduce Na­tional Assembly budgetary alloca­tion by N20 billion, from N150 bil­lion annually to N130 billion.

With the inauguration of the Eighth National Assembly also came more calls for the reduc­tion of the allowances of the fed­eral lawmakers, especially against the backdrop of dwindling reve­nues for government occasioned by the world-wide fall in prices of crude oil, Nigeria’s major source of revenue.

First term senator from Bayel­sa State, Ben Murray-Bruce, called for the reduction in allowances ac­cruable to federal lawmakers, a call which received widespread com­mendation not only from general­ity of Nigerians, but some of his fel­low federal lawmakers, but so far, the lawmakers have remained ada­mant and recalcitrant over their bo­gus take home pay.

Also, former president of Civ­il Liberty Organisation (CLO), and Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, earlier before in­auguration of President Muham­madu Buhari, called on the Presi­dent to cut salaries and allowances of lawmakers, opining that what the lawmakers earned as income cur­rently was not only unconstitution­al, but was also against RMAFC rec­ommendations.

Agbakoba made the call in a letter he wrote to Buhari last year as the President-elect, titled, “Giving Nigeria a New Deal,” where he enu­merated areas of focus for the then incoming Buhari administration.

This was just as Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), had threatened re­sumption of hostilities in the Niger Delta if the bogus huge earnings of members of the National Assembly were not reversed.

MEND described the federal lawmakers as “selfish and wicked”, lamenting that the lawmakers ap­propriate to themselves huge and absurd salaries and allowances at the expense of helpless Nigerians,

 most of who have not been paid sal­aries and pensions for months.

The militant group in an elec­tronic mail signed by its spokes­man, Jomo Gbomo, urged National Assembly members to without fur­ther delay make necessary amends to accommodate the needs of the suffering masses.

Saying that the wasteful lifestyle of the lawmakers, whose stock-in-trade was self-enrichment, would no longer be tolerated, MEND warned that the Eighth National Assembly should be held responsi­ble for whatever action it took if its warning was not heeded.

The statement reads: “MEND, has observed with disgust the bra­zen disregard for the feelings of the change-seeking masses by very self­ish members of the eighth Nation­al Assembly.

“These wicked individuals ap­propriate to themselves huge and absurd salaries/allowances at the expense of millions of hapless Ni­gerians, who have not been paid for months, their salaries, pensions and other due benefits they deserve.

“The Niger Delta region where the bulk of revenue that sustains the nation comes from continues to suffer neglect, environmental degradation and lack, made worse by the very corrupt and vision­less past government of President Goodluck Jonathan and his cronies, some of who still shamelessly pa­rade themselves on national televi­sion and other media platforms as Niger Delta activists.

“Nigerians refuse to tolerate this ostentatious lifestyle of our law­makers whose main objectives, it seems, are to enrich themselves and carelessly spend scarce resources.

“The Niger Delta people refuse to pamper and cater for the needs of these thieving Assembly rogues to its detriment.”

Not done, the National Assem­bly premises played host to anoth­er round of protests when dozens of protesters stormed the National As­sembly complex recently, demand­ing a 60 per cent cut in salaries and allowances for all lawmakers and political appointees in the country.

Under the auspices of Con­science Nigeria (CN), a civil soci­ety group, the protesters demand­ed that legislative business should be on a part-time basis, consider­ing the huge cost of maintaining the National Assembly, which is known for always embarking on frequent recess.

CN executive director, Com­rade Tosin Adeyanju, said: “Why will 469 members share N120 bil­lion in a year? If we don’t act, Ni­geria will collapse like Greece. The time has come for National Assem­bly members to declare their pay. The secrecy must stop.”

He said that Nigerian feder­al lawmakers ranked the highest earners in a comparative analysis CN conducted on salaries and al­lowances of lawmakers in five de­veloped countries.

The breakdown showed the United States of America lawmak­ers earning $174,000; United King­dom parliamentarians go home with $105,000; in France, lawmak­ers make do with $85,000; German lawmakers take home $119,500; and Canadian lawmakers earn $154,000. But in Nigeria, federal lawmakers earn $181,974.

Adeyanju added: “In terms of lawmakers’ salary as ratio GDP per capital, the gap is even wider. While salaries of Nigerian lawmakers are 116 times the country’s GDP per person, that of the British parlia­ment member is just 2.7 times.

“The average salary of Nigeri­an workers based on the national minimum wage of N18,000 x 12 months is N216,000 per year. Re­member the yearly salary of a Ni­gerian senator is $2,183,685. There­fore, it will take an average Nigerian worker 1,638 years to earn the year­ly salary of a senator.”

Earlier in 2013, legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola Uni­versity, Ado-Ekiti, ABUAD, Chief Afe Babalola, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, called for making federal lawmaking business a part time job.

Babalola, SAN, said a full time National Assembly was not in the country’s best interest, adding that the National Assembly as present­ly constituted is too expensive for a country like Nigeria facing many socio-economic problems. That was even long before the glut in global price of crude oil.

Disclosing that there were many credible Nigerians who are ready to serve in the National As­sembly on part-time basis and col­lect only sitting allowances, Babalo­la said this category of people would not need the huge salaries and other fringe benefits accruable to the cur­rent lawmakers, yet they would ef­fectively carry out their legislative work better than the current law­makers.

He said the result of this is that the country will divert the money used in paying huge salaries and al­lowances for full-time lawmakers to grow the economy and develop the nation. But unfortunately, nobody listened to the legal luminary.

As these agitations for reduc­tion of allowances accruable to fed­eral lawmakers continue unabated, the Senate has said it was set to re­view its budget and allowances to ensure that it is in line with current economic realities in the country.

Senate President, Bukola Sa­raki, who disclosed this sometime ago, explained that the proposed re­view will take place once the com­position of the principal officers of the Senate has been concluded.

He said he had met with offi­cials from RMAFC to get accurate information on the true state of sal­aries and allowances of members of the National Assembly.

Regretting the that the media has of recent been awash with what he described as fictitious reports on wardrobe allowances for National Assembly members, Saraki noted that the reports were not just false and malicious but also reckless.

Yet, the lawmakers, who are supposed to protect the interest of the electorate have not deemed it fit to review the National Mini­mum Wage Act, which give a pal­try N18,000, which many of them would spend more for a meal, to a family man with four children, to be in line with current economic reali­ties in the country.

But in all of these, one ques­tion agitating the minds of Nige­rians is why it has not been possi­ble to properly audit the accounts of National Assembly and make public its expenditure on emolu­ments of members of the National Assembly? As part of government, the office of the Auditor-General is responsible for auditing National Assembly accounts, but there were doubts of the office doing a thor­ough job, simply because of the law­makers’ influence on its work and opinions.

Even the Nigerians Account­ing Standard Board (NASB), that should ensure the audit report of the National Assembly was not misrepresented or propped up and as well ensure conformity with ac­counting standards, is presently at the mercy of the federal lawmakers

Outcries against federal law­makers’ emoluments is character­ised with one common feature: re­duction or cut to reflect current economic realities, especially with the global fall of crude oil price, Ni­geria’s economic main-stay.

But then, another question that comes up is how do the lawmak­ers spend these bogus allowanc­es? Their choice investments are cars, properties and women. A trip to the National Assembly complex will reveal that it is a car showroom of sorts, where different exotic cars compete for attention. Federal law­makers are owners of choice prop­erties and sprawling estates in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and all over the world.

As the clarion calls for cut in the emolument of federal lawmak­ers continue to resonate, some of them have continued to kick against any such move, vowing to block any move from any quarter to cut their emoluments.

A member of the House of Rep­resentatives, Chief Joe Edionwele, representing Esan West/Centra/Ig­ueben federal constituency of Edo State on the platform of the PDP, had profusely protested against the debate for pay cut, describing pro­ponents of the crusade as ignorant.

Edionwele said, “I think peo­ple are speaking out of ignorance. Even before now, I was one of those who believed the same thing. The records will be made public. We will ensure that the National As­sembly does that, Nigerians need to know. The salaries we earn are not in any way close to what peo­ple speculate. People in the oil and gas sectors, banking and even lec­turers earn more than us and the President.

“By the time we make it public, everybody will have peace. It will give you peace. One of my friends told me that the salary and allow­ances I will earn will be N40 mil­lion. I told him if I get that for 10 months, I will resign. I can tell you that by the time it is made public, people will sympathise with us. Legislators should earn well so that they will not be corrupt during their oversight functions.”

Unfortunately, till date, these emoluments are yet to be made public for Nigerians to judge whether they really are bogus or considerate. Senators have also been divided over the call for pay cut, with majority of them alleged­ly kicking against any attempt to re­duce their allowances.

According to one of them who pleaded anonymity, the senators were said to have rejected the idea, saying that it was not possible to ac­cept pay cut, unless other benefi­ciaries of the N120 billion Nation­al Assembly budget also travel the same route.

Senator Matthew Urhoghide, PDP/Edo South, said senators told themselves the truth on the need to accept reduction of salaries and al­lowances, adding that many of his colleagues agreed that “funny al­lowances” like the N42,000 monthly wardrobe allowance should be cut off completely.

He said: “Yes, as recommend­ed by the committee, all senators agreed that there must be openness in Senate budget and by extension, that of the National Assembly. At the same time, many reasoned that why should we further reduce our budget when already, N30 billion has been reduced from the tradi­tional N150 billion that it used to be for all the seven different organs of the National Assembly. All of us have people in our constituencies and financial requests from them keep piling up on a daily basis, the reality of which made steps to be re­directed, otherwise, some of us may stop coming here.”

Will the federal lawmakers al­low reason to prevail and reduce their emoluments in the face of dwindling resources and in con­sideration of the level of poverty that has ravaged the land? Especial­ly against the backdrop of a mini­mum wage of N18,000 per month for the average Nigerian worker, which many states are still unable to pay! Only time will tell.