By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The salaries and allowances for the incoming lawmakers may cost the country about N49 billion, findings by an Ogun State based national newspaper revealed.
According to the medium, the figure covers the salaries and allowances of state and federal lawmakers.
The salaries and allowances are based on data collated from a document obtained from the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.
However, the total allowances are higher than reported as the amount for a number of the allowances was not disclosed.
While N32.60 billion will be spent at the national level, N16.32 billion will be spent at the state level.
A breakdown shows that the annual basic salary of the President of the Senate is N2.48m each year (about N9.94m in four years) while that of the Deputy President is N2.31m yearly (about N9.24m in four years).
Out of 19 allowances assigned to the Senate President and his deputy, only five allowances were assigned a specific figure.
The disclosed allowances include constituency allowance (250 per cent of the basic annual salary), duty tour allowance (N50,000 per night), Estacode ($1,300 per night), Recess (10 per cent of the basic annual salary) and severance gratuity (300 per cent of the basic annual salary).
The allowance of the Senate President will gulp about N33.29 million, which includes annual N6.21 million for constituency allowance, annual N248,424.25 for recess, and N7.45 million for severance gratuity, which is paid at the end of the tenure.
The allowance of the Deputy Senate President is expected to cost the nation about N30.94 million, which includes an annual N5.77 million for constituency allowance, an annual N230,916.70 for recess, and N6.93 million for severance gratuity.
Other senators get N2.03 million as basic annual salary (a total of N8.11m in four years) and a total of N72,137,440 each as allowances.
The salaries of the 107 senators will cost N867.3m, while their allowances will cost N7.72bn.
In the section for the salaries and allowances of other senators, out of the 20 allowances mentioned, only 15 were disclosed.
The Speaker of the House gets an annual salary of N2.48m (about N9.91 million in four years), while the Deputy gets N2.29 million (about N9.15 million).
The allowance of the Speaker is about N18.33 million which includes an annual N2.48 million for constituency allowance, an annual N247,711 for recess, and N7.43 million for severance gratuity.
The allowance of the deputy speaker was pegged at about N17.16m and this includes annual N 2.29m for constituency allowance, N 288,703 for recess, and N6.86m for severance gratuity.
Other members of the House of Representatives get N1.99m as basic annual salary-a total of N7.94m in four years or N58.76m each as allowances.
The salaries of the 358 House of Representatives members will cost N2.84bn while their allowances are estimated at N21.04bn.
The Speaker of a state assembly will be paid N1.64m (N6.56m in four years) as an annual basic salary while the deputy speaker gets N1.45m (N5.8m in four years).
In total, the 36 speakers will get about N59.04m as annual basic salary or N236.16m in four years while the deputies will get about N52.1m as annual basic salary or N208.40m in four years.
Source: Punch
