Nigerian Senate confirms N13.5m monthly allowance to Senators

The Nigeria Senate yesterday, confirmed that each senator collects N13.5m monthly as running cost in addition to N750,000 monthly salary/allowances, but quickly added that the information about the emoluments of senators was never a secret.According to the Senate Spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the figure of the running cost of the offices of Senators were contained in various line items and expenditure heads, of the budget of the National Assembly which has been made public before now.

With the new revelation, it was gathered that each Senator takes home a N45m quarterly allowance.

According to Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi who represents Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani did not disclose anything new, and dismissed the insinuations that Sani’s colleague were unhappy with him.

He further said that if people had looked critically at the budget of the National Assembly which has since been made public, they would have seen that various line items like travelling , medicals, consultancy and the rest were captured in the budget and they were the funds divided for each Senator’s use.

“Almost all holders of elective and appointive offices have running costs allocated to their offices and that cannot be said to be part of their salaries.

“I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month” Abdullahi stated.

NAN reported that Senator Abdullahi further said, that while there is no specific instruction on what the fund should be used for, lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running costs, which is in addition to funds earmarked for each senator for constituency projects.

“But what I am saying is that that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750,000.00.

“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every Senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.

“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.

“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.

“So, it’s becoming difficult for what used to happen in the past to happen now.

“But I can tell you that I would love a situation where we do away with running costs, constituency projects and leaves senators and members of House of Reps with salaries.‘And also, the public should be informed that nobody should come to any senator’s house asking for any kobo. That also would be helpful.”