Lawmaker’s salary controversy: I take home N21m monthly, Kano Senator opens up

Amid the ongoing controversy over the earnings by National Assembly members, the lawmaker representing Kano South, Senator Sumaila Kawu, on Wednesday, disclosed that he gets over N21m monthly as total take-home package.

Senator Kawu made this revelation barely 24 hours after the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission claimed that each of the 109 Senators earn N1.06m as salary and allowances monthly.

RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, made this claim while clarifying the real amount each lawmaker earns on a monthly basis.

Each lawmaker, based on Shehu’s claim, earns N12.72m yearly while the Federal Government expends N1.4bn annually on all the 109 Senators.

A breakdown of the monthly earnings of the Senators revealed that each of them earns N1,063,860 monthly as salary and allowances. This consists of a basic salary, N168,866:70; motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance, N126,650:00; and personal assistant, N42,216:66.

Others include domestic staff,126,650:00; entertainment, N50,660:00; utilities, N50,660:00; newspapers/periodicals, N25,330:00; wardrobe, N42,216,66:00; house maintenance, N8,443.33:00; and constituency allowance, N422,166:66.

Shehu in the statement, however, said, “The commission also wishes to use this opportunity to state that any allegation regarding other allowance(s) being enjoyed by any political, public office holder outside those provided in the Remuneration (Amendment) Act, 2008 should be explained by the person who made the allegation.

“To avoid misinformation and misrepresentation of facts capable of misleading citizens and members of the international community, the commission considers it most appropriate and necessary to request Nigerians and any other interested party to avail themselves of the opportunity to access the actual details of the present remuneration package for political, public and judicial office holders in Nigeria published on its website: www.rmafc.gov.ng.”

But in an interview with the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, on Wednesday morning disclosed that although his monthly salary is about N1m, what he actually gets is N21m.

The lawmaker’s claim is clearly a wide margin from the figures the RMFAC Chairman quoted in his claim.

According to the Senator, “The amount of salary I receive per month is less than N1m, if there are cuts, it comes back to about six hundred thousand naira and a little something as salary,” adding that there are usually a few deductions by the RMFAC.

Recall that last week, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, while receiving six members of the House of Representatives led by Ikenga UgoChinyere, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, carpeted the Federal lawmakers for fixing their salaries and emoluments.

Obasanjo had told the lawmakers, “In your case, with all due respect, you’re not supposed to fix your salaries. But you decide what you pay yourself, the allowances that you give yourselves (including) newspaper allowances.

“You give yourselves all sorts of things, and you know it is not right. It is immoral, (yet) you are doing it, the Senate is doing it, and you are beating your chests about it. In some cases, the executive gives you what you’re not entitled to. You all got N200 million (each).”

In similar vein, a former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, had sometime ago revealed that each Senator collects a monthly running cost of N13.5m in addition to the monthly N750,000 prescribed by RMAFC.

But the Senate in a Statement on Sunday denied Obasanjo’s allegations, describing them as lies.