If the N13, 939, 549 a senator earns as basic salary and allowances annually is added to the breakdown of the N20, 090, 000 received as allowances every four years, which is N1, 666, 666 a year, this shows that the annual emolument of a member of the Upper House is a total of N15, 606, 215. This means that it will take 70 years for a worker on the national minimum wage of N18, 000 a month (N216, 000 a year), to earn what a senator receives in a year.
It is not 60 years as Professor Ango Abdullahi was informed by an analyst who reckoned with only the basic salary and allowances a senator gets in a year, without including the yearly breakdown of the one paid to a senator every four years. Nigeria has a total of 109 senators and this means that annually the nation spends N1.7 billion (1, 701, 077, 435 to be precise) on all of them.
A member of the House of Representatives earns N9.7 million (N9, 740, 310) annually as basic salary and allowances. While every four years he or she receives N23.8 million (N23, 822, 000) as allowance for accommodation (N3, 970, 000), furniture (N5, 956, 000), severance gratuity (N5, 956, 000) and N7, 940, 000 as car loan. The latter is the only money a legislator repays.
The four – year allowances of N23, 822, 000 break down to N1, 985, 166 a year. And this means that annually, the nation spends N11.7million (N11, 725, 476) on a member of the Lower House and N4.2 billion (4, 221, 171, 360) on all the 360 of them in the House of Representatives.
A member of a State House of Assembly earns N2.4million (N2, 473, 866.25 kobo) as basic salary annually. For the vehicle allowance he or she gets N494, 773, for domestic staff (N618, 466), utilities (N247, 386), personal assistant (N618, 466), wardrobe (N618, 466), constituency matters (N618, 466) and N147, 386 for newspapers/periodicals. All these total N5.8million (N5, 837, 274) a year.
There are 947 members in the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states in the country. This means that cumulatively the nation spends N4.3billion (N4, 356, 524, 821) on all of them every year. So, for 109 senators, 360 members of the House of Representatives and the 947 in the Houses of Assembly in the 36 states, the nation dishes out N10.2 billion (N10, 278, 773, 616) every year.
Five million naira of the N15.6 million basic salary and allowances paid to a senator every year is for constituency projects. One million, nine hundred and eighty – five thousand naira of the N11.7 million a member of the House of Representatives gets is for the same purpose. While N618, 466 of the N5.8million a member of a State House of Assembly receives annually is also for it.
It is this money they are given as constituency allowance from the national purse as part of their emolument in a year that the legislators spend on projects or to buy a car or working materials or taking care of the medical needs of a few people in their communities. But because most members of the public do not know this, they therefore assume that the parliamentarians gave out the money from their private purses because they are generous politicians.
When it is possible that they did not use all the funds they received for constituency projects on the people of their communities, let alone spend some of their personal money in addition. The question is: why must the country make constituency allowance available to a legislator and thereby give him or her undue advantage over the opponents during an election? And is such money given to legislators in the advanced countries or even in the developing ones?
Apart from the fat basic salary and allowances the nation pay them, the legislators at the federal level from 1999 – May 28, 2015 were believed to have received bribe from those who were presidents during the period. While those in the states got it from their governors either to avoid being impeached or to pass the bills they presented to them.
It is on record in 2005 and 06 that some legislators publicly alleged that President Olusegun Obasanjo offered N50million to each member of the Senate and House of Representatives to amend the constitution to do away with the two – term limit for a president. The ill – fated move was to facilitate his ambition to have a third term and possibly life presidency. Senator Abdulahi Adamu, a former Governor of Adamawa State, repeated it last month, saying some collected the money from Obasanjo, while he and others rejected the bribe.
Of course, it is because of the huge amount they receive and basic salary and allowances and the opportunity to get a bribe of several millions of naira, that make Nigerian politicians to spend millions or billions of naira for the presidential, gubernatorial or legislative elections. Compared with the inexpensive parliamentary system, spending N10.2billion on the one thousand, four hundred and sixteen Legislators in the country annually is like wasting N7 – 8 billion of national resources on them every year.
To be continued next Wednesday
Reverend Animasawun, the role model prelate (2)
Aside the church he has in each of Badeku and Motaro villages in Oyo State and the trio of Oniyanmo, Asaonigunuko and Patakeji in Ogun State, Reverend Idowu Animasawun also has one in each of the villages of Nyamor in Benue State, Metulah Malele in southern Cameroon and Agankan – Agbogbo in the Republic of Benin. The first two he was able to establish through the suggestion of two members of his church in Badeku, Ibadan who were indigenes of the villages and the latter through a member of his church in Asaonigunuko in the Ifo area of Ogun State who is from Benin Republic.
The way Reverend Animasawun, whose congregation is made up ninety – nine per cent by low – income earners, was able to build the church in the eight villages in three countries and establish in Badeku a nursery and primary school, a college (secondary school) and a health centre, bear testimony to the fact that if one faithfully and devotedly serves God, that He would always provide for such a person miraculously whenever he or she needs help. To do all he has achieved Rev. Animasawun said he got funds mainly from people he never met before or organizations he did not hear about until they reached out to him. This happened when he went on invitation to preach in their churches across the country or read about his missionary activities in a Christian magazine in Nigeria or abroad. Two of such benevolent persons were a Nigerian woman who was living in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and a Nigerian clergyman resident in England. The latter, among other things he did for him, provided the money he used to but his first Mercedes Benz car about two decades or so ago.
For conclusion next week