Senator representing Kano South, Senator Sumaila Kawu, has said that his total take-home including salary and allowance is N21 million monthly.
He revealed this in an interview with BBC Hausa on Wednesday, August 14, stating that the official pay package was fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
“My monthly salary is less than N1million. After deductions, the figure comes down to a little over N600,000. Given the increase effected, in the Senate, each senator gets a million every month as running cost,” he said.
Kawu further noted that allowances included office running, newspaper, and local travel, among others.
His revelation came barely 24 hours after the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) said that each of the 109 senators in the upper chamber received N1.06m in salary and allowances monthly.
According to the Chairman of RMAFC, Mohammed Shehu, it was a form of clarification in response to the controversies about the real amount each lawmaker earns per month.
He said every lawmaker earned N12.72 million yearly while the Federal Government provided N1.4 billion for all 109 senators yearly.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had tackled members of the National Assembly on the allowances they get each month, stirring up controversy.
“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,” Obasanjo said.
Meanwhile, the lawmakers in their response to the former President said the RMAFC fixed their allowances.
Giving a breakdown of the monthly earnings by each senator, the RAMFC’s chairman stated that a monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860, consisting of a basic salary, N168,866:70; motor vehicle fuelling and maintenance allowance, N126,650:00; and personal assistant, N42,216:66.
The salary also includes, 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.
The ICIR analysed, in several reports, the remuneration packages of senators, ministers and states’ special advisers appointed and how the salaries, if reinvested, could meet some of the country’s critical needs.
In August 2023, just after the screening and confirmation of all ministerial nominees, the Nigerian Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the payment of a ‘vacation allowance’ to senators as they embarked on a seven-week recess of which the 109 senators received N2 million each, totalling N218 million.
A report by The ICIR however showed how the N218 million ‘holiday allowance’ could benefit Nigeria if redirected to address fundamental problems facing the nation.
ICIR
