At a time Nigerians are groaning under the yoke of recession, members of the National Assembly comprising the Senators and members of House of Representatives have received a total of N6.78bn as salaries and allowances in one year, investigation by Economic Confidential has revealed.
The report by Economic intelligence magazine showed the ‘legitimate’ remuneration of the federal legislators in compliance with the statutory approval of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission. The remuneration package includes: annual salaries, accommodation, vehicle maintenance and fuel, personal assistants, house maintenance, domestic staff, entertainment and utilities allowances. others allowances are; constituency allowance, annual leave, hardship allowance, wardrobe, newspapers and responsibility allowances.
A careful scrutiny of the report shows that each Senator has an annual salary of N2.02m while a member of House of Representative receives N1.98m as annual basic salary. The basic salary of the Senate President is N2.48m while that of the Speaker of House of Representatives is N2.47m. The Deputy Senate President has N2.30m as annual basic salary while the Deputy Speaker earns N2.28mn annually.
In addition to the annual basic salary, each member of the National Assembly receives 200 per cent of the annual salary for accommodation; 75 per cent for vehicle maintenance; 25 per cent for personal assistants; five per cent for house maintenance; 75 per cent for domestic staff; 30 per cent for both entertainment and utilities.
Others are, 25 per cent for wardrobe; 15 per cent for newspapers; and responsibility allowance of between 10 and five per cent.