Senate president, Lawan, decries low salaries of lawmakers

Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President on Monday bemoaned the low salaries and emoluments of Federal lawmakers while making clarifications on allowances accrued.

Lawan made this disclosure in a paper presented at the first Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in Abuja.

This was against the backdrop of secrecy on how much Nigerian lawmakers in the upper and lower legislative Chambers earn.

According to the Senate President, the monthly salary of a Senator was N1.5 million, while that of a member of House of Representatives was N1.3 million.

He further noted that the N13 million earlier argued in the public space a few years ago as the monthly salary of a Senator was the quarterly office running allowance.

“The total salary of a member of the Senate is about N1.5 million and that of the House of Representatives is about N1.3 million.

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“The quarterly office allowance for legislators is what was erroneously conflated with a monthly income to create confusion and mislead the Nigerian people.

“The average office running cost for a senator is about N13 million while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N8 million”, he said.

Arithmetically, N13 million office running cost for a Senator amounts to N52 million a year while the N8 million for a member of the House of Representatives amounts to N32 million in a year.

But the President of the Senate said N13 million and N8 million quarterly office running cost for a member of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, were the lowest of any presidential democracy in the world.

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