In America, a Senator earns 174,000 US dollars and in the UK, a Member of parliament about 64,000 US dollars a year. So what do our lawmaker do for this generous amount can someone please tell me why they deserve this enormous amount of money.
It is about time Nigerians demand better service and improvement for Nigeria and Nigerians.
No one deserves that much money while ordinary people are scavenging to make ends meet. Nigeria has got multitude of deprivation; high infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, malnutrition, inadequate health care and transportation and lack of electricity outage, high crime rates, high number of young people not in education, employment or in training. So why is some of these excesses going to improve the lives of Nigerians.
So instead Nigerians lawmakers are paid for below par performance and disregard to the electorates that they are meant to represent. I feel that ordinary Nigerians have been severely short changed, cheated and insulted by these so called honourable people.
According to Professor Itse Sagay, he stated that the Nigerian lawmakers at the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly are the highest paid legislators in the world. A senator in Nigeria earns 240 million naira (about 1.7 million US dollars) in salaries and allowances and a member of the House of Representatives earns 204 million naira (about 1.45million US dollars) per annum. It definitely rubs insult to injury for the average Civil servant who earns about 46 to 120 US dollars per month.
RMAFC disputes the allowances that the lawmakers earn as misleading and describes the allowances as befitting the political and public office holders; such as the Nigerian Senator Remuneration package comes to 1,505% of basic salary, and the other 225% for furniture.
NIGERIAN SENATORS
Basic Salary (BS) = N2,484,245.50
Hardship Allowanc: 50% of Basic Salary = N1,242,122.75
Constituency allowance: 200% of BS = N4,968,509.00
Furniture Allowance: 300% of BS = N7,452,736.50
Newspaper allowance: 50% = N1,242,122.70
Wardrobe allowance: 25% = N621,061.37
Recess Allowance: 10% = N248,424.55
Accommodation: 200% = N4,968,509.00
Utilities: 30% = N828,081.83
Domestic Staff: 35% = N863,184.12
Entertainment: 30% = N828,081.83
Personal Assistance: 25% = N621,061.37
Vehicle Maintenance Allowance: 75% = N1,863,184.12
Leave Allowance : 10% = N248,424.55
One off payments (Severance gratuity): 300% = N7,452,736.50
Motor Vehicle Allowance: 400% of BS = N9,936,982.00
Total per month = N29,479, 749.00
A senator's annual salary = over N182 million multiply by 109 senators (not forgeting the 360 House of Representatives members and Ministers, Ambassadors, etc)
In addition to the regular and legitimate salaries and allowances of over N17 million ($113,333) and N14.99 million ($99,933) which senators and reps were collecting yearly and the irregular allowance of estacodes, duty tours etc, they were also collecting over N192m ($1.28m) and N140m ($0.93m) respectively in illicit quarterly allocation which is not provided for by RMAFC.
Effectively, a Nigerian senator was taking home at least $1.40m ($1.28m quarterly allocations + $0.113m regular salaries and allowances) as against the $0.174m an American senator takes home hence a Nigeria senator earns at least 8 times as much as an American senator and more than 3 times the American president.
Senate President David Mark alone takes N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month. Senate Deputy President Ike Ekweremadu gets N150 million per quarter or N50 million a month.
Mark and Ekweremadu earns in 4 months, six times what the UK Prime Minister earns in a year. David Cameron goes home with £190,000 per anum (N43,700,000)
Selected States (salary per annum)
The prime minister of the United Kingdom..........USD 226,627.00
French president......................................... USD 318,072.00
South African president..................................USD 296,112.00
German chancelor........................................USD 296,112.00
The Prime Minister of Belgium.....................USD 174,804.00
President of the Republic of Korea................USD 136,669.00
President of Russia.......................................USD 122,652.00
Prime Minister Portugal.................................USD 129,730.00
Prime Minister Namibia.................................USD 115,155.00
President of Angola......................................USD 60,000.00
President Argentina......................................USD 55,139.00
Prime Minister Ukraine..................................USD 61,254.00
President Zimbabwe.....................................USD 18,000.00
President of People's republic of China........USD 10,633.00
President Liberia..........................................USD 90,000.00
Prime Minister Spain ...................................USD 102,960.00
Prime Minister Namibia................................USD 115,155.00
President Namibia.......................................USD 164,506.00
President of Colombia ................................USD 120,685.00
Prime Minister of the Netherlands...............USD 190,740.00
Prime Minister Ireland.................................USD 264,000.00
Prime Minister Denmark..............................USD 264,533.00
President Mexico........................................USD 328,839.00
USD 328,839.00 ........................................USD 427,886.00
President Austria........................................USD 422,231.00
President of the European Council...............USD 508,916.00
Credit: Denrele Animasaun/Vanguard/Nigeria News
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