Nigeria Lawmakers Spent N1 trillion plus in Eight years

A Nigerian legislator receives an annual salary of about $189,000, equivalent of N30 million, which is 116 times the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person, says the publication which was posted on the magazine’s website on Friday.

The figures put salaries collected by Nigerian senators and members of the House of Representatives way ahead of those received by fellow parliamentarians in the 29 countries whose data was analyzed by the Economist....

While the salary of a Nigerian lawmaker is 116 times the country’s GDP per person, that of a British member of parliament is just 2.7 times.

...only Australian lawmakers, with $201,200 annual salary, receive higher amounts compared to Nigerian legislators, but their salaries are only 3 times their country’s GDP per person.

National assembly Abuja building

Nigerian lawmakers are highest paid in the world.

The Economist’s review of lawmakers’ salaries in 29 nations unsurprisingly hurled Nigeria up the pay rungs, at $189, 500 (about N30 million) in average annually for each Senator or member of the House of Representatives. The figure is second only to Australia.

Relative to each country’s per capita- how much each citizen of each nation is worth when their nation’s total wealth is shared by her population- Nigeria assumed its rightful top, followed by Kenya and Ghana, two other poor African nations, relative to other matched countries.

Put simply, if Nigeria’s national cake were shared equitably, and each of its nearly 170 million got $1,500 (per capita) as the World Bank says, then what the lawmakers are taking is 116 times what the “ordinary” Nigerian receives. On that scale, Kenyan lawmakers take 75 times their citizens’, and for Ghana, it is 29.8 times.

Down the ladder, that ratio in Norway, one of the world’s most prosperous nations, is 1.8. It is 3.8 in United States, which pays its lawmakers an average annual salary of $174 thousand; and it is 2.7 in Britain where a Member of Parliament is paid $105.4 thousand.

When a fortnight ago, the United Kingdom’s Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority mulled a raise for the MPs, to about $113.12 thousand, some lawmakers themselves, vowed to fight the move planned for implementation in 2015.

The Labour chair of the home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, said: “The last thing MPs should be talking about is their own pay rise.”

For its entire jolt, the Nigerian story is far more heinous as the Economist’s account merely considered the main salaries and allowances as stipulated by the Revenue and Fiscal Mobilization Commission, which sets lawmakers pay at a few millions monthly, all allowances inclusive.

What constitutes the real chunk of the package or, what makes the Nigerian federal lawmaker different, aloofly branded “running cost” by the legislators, and called “jumbo allowance” by Nigerians, were clearly excluded.

Side by side, the “jumbo” pay alone, drawn quarterly, rates with, or easily surpasses the entire year’s pay which already sets Nigeria ahead of other countries. It is the package the lawmakers have long mastered how to conceal from the public, preferring to divulge only the details of the RMFAC-approved salary.

By 2011, the Senate’s quarterly “running cost” was jerked to N45 million per member, while the House members received N36 million. A hostile public response subsequently forced the earnings down to what has remained an unclear rate since. Officially, the lawmakers claimed the package was lowered by 63%, but that has been refuted by lawmakers speaking informally.

Since then, the Senate and the House have refused to disclose their member’s exact earnings.

If such prospect existed, it seemed foreclosed after both chambers tacitly included the National Assembly amongst a number of institutions like INEC, Courts, given statutory allocations from the budget, meaning their funding will no longer subject to an executive or even legislative approval.

With that new status came more secrecy, as previously available spending details have been since curtailed from the public.

But insiders have said the farthest reduction both chambers effected at the time, must have lonely limited the Senate’s “running cost” to over N30 million, and House of Representatives to N27 million.

For the four quarters annually, that would total between N100 million and N180 million respectively per member (averagely $1 million and more) – far more than the earnings of lawmakers in other nations listed by the Economist.

So huge have the sums been from the start that sustaining it, under former Speaker of the House, Dimeji Bankole, required drawing a credit from a commercial bank. The move turned out to be one of the many transgressions Mr. Bankole still faces charges today.

On the Economist’s list, countries often compared to Nigeria on population, economy and security, found the lawmakers’ pay, finally, as the differing point.

Pakistan, for instance pays its lawmakers $3,500, Bangladesh pays $4,000 and Sri Lanka pays $5,100. Their per capita ratio to the population stands at 2.8, 4.9 and 1.9 respectively.

For Nigeria, again, the ratio is 116.

A Must-Read: Nigeria Lawmakers Top Salaries Charts…..Beat MPs In US, Britain, S/Africa, Brazil, Japan

Nigerian federal legislators receive much higher salaries than their counterparts in wealthier countries and key developing nations, according to an analysis published by the Economist magazine.

A Nigerian legislator receives an annual salary of about $189,000, equivalent of N30 million, which is 116 times the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person.

A total of N150 billion was voted for the National Assembly in the 2013 national budget but there is no breakdown, which should have shown at least a summary of the legislators’ earnings.

Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) documents show that a senator is entitled to N35 million and member of the House of Representatives N29.28 million in the first year of each legislative session when they receive allowances that are payable once in four years—accommodation, furniture and car allowances…. the lawmakers’ allowances include accommodation (Senator N4m, Rep N3.97m), vehicle loan (Senator N8m, Rep N6.948m), furniture (Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m) and severance gratuity (Senator N6m, Rep N5.956m), which are due once in four years.

Other allowances, which are payable every year, are car maintenance (Senator N1.52m, Rep N595,563), constituency (Senator N5m, Rep N1.687m), domestic staff (Senator N1.5m, Rep N1.488m), personal assistant (Senator N506,600; Rep N496,303), entertainment (Senator N202,640, Rep N198,521), recess (Senator N202,640; Rep N198,521), utilities (Senator N607,920; Rep N397,042), newspaper/periodicals (Senator N303,960; Rep N297,781), house maintenance (Senator N101,320; Rep N99,260) and ward robe (Senator N405,280; Rep N397,402). There are also estacode (Senator $600, Rep $550) and duty tour allowance (Senator N23, 000; Rep N21, 000) payable per day

Implication of this report on Nigeria Citizens

Nigeria is a great country! No doubt about that, one of the great features of Nigeria citizen is that despite all odds we enjoy all the circumstance in good faith! In economic point of view, if just only one lawmaker annual income is 116 times the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per person, I think is good for our dear country economy. I am not surprise because this reflects in socio economic life of ordinary Nigeria citizen.

I think Nigerians can now sees why our roads are good, health care delivering service perfect, security situation is of no concern, Education system is global competitive, our agricultural sector and manufacturing sector is functioning, there is outright water supply in every nooks and cronies of the country and all youth are gainfully employ with much of social security for disadvantage citizens

“For this report, I am not surprise because now, it is not hidden to everybody the reasons why everybody is desperate of power and those in power are not ready to leave the house of treasury”

At least for a single person to take what suppose to be for 116 citizens at a time is good for the country at least what they have taken is just their own portion of national cake…….maybe government has made arrangement for all citizens to be part of this through federal character!

What I just want the beneficiary and the custodian of the treasury to know is that they can’t continue to cheat on the right of less defensive Nigerians forever, I foreseen a generation will come that will know what the “right of equality” is and enforce their civic right under the law to protect it and individually clinch with is meant for them! 

 Courtesy of Campaign for New Nigeria Media Group