by Emmanuel Ukudolo
ALTHOUGH Nigeria ranks as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a per capita income of $2,249 per annum as against $46,350 in the United States (U.S.), Nigerian Senators have emerged as the highest paid in the world, each earning more than President Barack Obama of the U.S.
Legal luminary, Professor Itse Sagay, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), made the allegation yesterday, while delivering a lecture on “Legislating for Common Good: Contemporary Issues & Perspective”, as part of activities to mark the 47th birthday of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, in Lagos.
According to the lawyer, Obama, who is reputed to be the President of the richest country in the world, earns $400,000 per annum.
“The British Prime Minister earns 190,000 Pounds,” he said.
The Senate President in Nigeria, he alleged, earns N250 million quarterly or N83 million per month whilst his deputy earns N50 million monthly.
The Senate President, he assumed, has allocated N1.024 billion as quarterly allowance to its 10 principal officers known collectively as Senate Leadership.
“Each of the other principal officers earn N78 million every three months or N26 million per month,” Sagay said.
He also pointed out that Nigerian Legislators have awarded themselves the highest salaries and allowances in the world.
“In other words, Nigerian lawmakers in Abuja are the highest paid in the world. In 2009, a Senator earned N240 million in salaries and allowances, whilst his House of Representatives counterpart earned N203,760,000 million. In other words, a senator earned about $1.7 million and a member of the House of Representatives earned $1.45 million per annum,” the lawyer said.
He suspected that by contrast, an American Senator in that year, earned $174,000, while his counterpart in Britain earned $64,000 per annum.
“This tragic state of affairs is clearly unsustainable. Those engaged in this feeding frenzy are endangering our democracy,” he said.
Sagay is raising this alarm just few years after former Minister of Information, Mr. Tony Momoh, wrote in an article, entitled “The Salary Time Bomb”, about the bloated salaries of political office holders, arguing that unless something is done about it, Nigeria will gradually grind to a halt.
Sagay also observed that in 2009, a federal legislator received N102.8 billion comprising N11.8 billion as salaries and N90.96 billion (non-taxable) as allowances.
The lawyer argued that by the current computation, the 109 senators and the 360 members of the House of Representatives gulp five per cent of the total annual budget while less than 150 million Nigerians receive about N1000 each.
The Senior Advocate noted that rather than operate to protect the interest of the nation, the lawmakers have jettisoned the interest of the nation for self interest.
“Instead of serving the people of this country, they are engaged in the pursuit of self interest, to a degree that can only be regarded as shocking,” he said.
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2010/07/28/nigeria%E2%80%99s-federal-legislato…
++++
A Nigerian senator earns more in Salary than Barack Obama and David Cameron
Below is a table of the earnings of some politicians in the US:
Public Officers Earning per year ($) Earning per year Naira (million)
President 400000.00 N60.0 Million
V. President 227300.00 N34.1 (Who is also the senate president).
Speaker of the House 223500.00 N33.5 Million
Majority Leader (Senate) $193,400 N29.1 Million
Minority Leader (Senate) $193,400 N29.1 Million
Other Senators 174000.00 N26.1 Million
Majority Leader (Representative) $193,400 N29.1 Million
Minority Leader (Representative) $193,400 N29.1 Million
Cabinet Secretary $193,400 N29.1 Million
Items Senator (N) Representative(N)
Basic salary/Regular allowances 11,145,200 9,926,062
Furniture 3,039,600 2,744,454
Motor Vehicle Loan 5,066,000 4,963,031
Duty Tour Allowance per day 23,000 21,000
Severance Gratuity 6,079,200 5,955,637
Estacodes $600 $550 (Limitless to the tune they want)
Other allowances expressed as percentages of basic salaries are:
Hardship Allowance @ 50%
Constituency allowance @ 200%
Newspaper allowance @ 50%
Wardrobe allowance @ 25%
Recess Allowance @ 10%
Accommodation @ 200%
Utilities @ 30%
Domestic Staff @ 75%
Entertainment @ 30%
Personal Assistance @ 25%
Vehicle Maintenance Allowance @ 75%
Leave Allowance @10%
This analyses translate to the fact that in addition to the regular and legitimate salaries and allowances of 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 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.
Whereas a Senator in the U.S earns N21, 146,000, the same as a member of the House of Representatives; a UK Member of Parliament earn £64,766 (N14, 896,180)
In other words, a Federal Legislator in Nigeria is paid more than double what a Member of British Parliament earns per annum.
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)
In a Next newspaper news article entitled ‘An Assembly for looting’ written by Musikilu Mojeed with Elor Nkereuwem, the authors rightly claimed that each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives were getting N35 million in cash money in quarterly allocation while each of the 109 Senators pockets N48 million each. These allocations have however been slashed by 20% to N27 million ($180,000) and N38 million ($253,333) respectively due to the 20% reduction requested by the late president.
The cut has been a source of a major controversy in the House of Representatives in the past few days where members are agitating to jerk up the sum to N42m quarterly at a time when the government is lamenting being broke and when the already signed 2010 budget is being cut by as much as 40%. What a bunch of greedy inhuman lots! The discordance has caused members of the House to force the speaker, Dimeji Bankole to reduce his quarterly allowance from N140m ($933,333) to N100m ($666,667) or from an annual allowance of N560m ($3.73m) to N400m ($2.67m).
According to data obtained from CIA World Factbook, Nigeria has an estimated per capital income (purchasing power parity) of $2,400 in 2009 as against USA’s $46,400. This means that the average earning in the US is 19.33 times as much as in Nigerian.
With the reduced salary package, a Nigeria senator still get paid N11 million ($73,333) in regular salaries and allowances annually and N152m ($1.03m) in four (quarterly) allocation making a total of $1.11m plus irregular allowances like estacodes and duty tour allowances.
The Senate has allocated N1, 024,000,000 as quarterly allowance to its 10 principal officers, known collectively as the Senate leadership - Each of the eight other principal officers take home N78 million every three months or N26 million per month.
Besides, for this year, the Senate has voted N2.6 billion for local travel, N2.45 billion (foreign travel), N1.25 million (security), N2.28 billion (contingency), N750 million (guest houses for Mark and Ekweremadu), and N500 million (establishment of radio and television stations).
http://www.nigerianelitesforum.com/ng/presidency-judiciary-legislative-…
+++
Nigeria’s Federal Legislator Earns More Than Obama
Constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay has revealed that a legislator in the National Assembly, Abuja, Nigeria, earns far more than the United States President, Barack Obama.
Prof. Itse Sagay
This revelation was made by Sagay yesterday when he delivered a lecture to mark the 47th birthday celebration of the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele held at the Eko FM Multi-Purpose Hall, Ikeja, Lagos.
In the lecture, Sagay lamented that a Nigerian Senator, in 2009 earned N240 million in salaries and allowances annually while his House of Representatives counterpart earned N203.8 million annually.
“In other words, a senator earned about $1.7 million and a member of the House of Representatives earned $1.45 million per annum,” he said.
He said this shows that a legislator in Nigeria earns more than the US President, Obama, who earns $400, 000 per annum and British Prime Minister, 190, 000 pounds, while a senator in Nigeria, one of the poorest countries in the world, earns $1.7 million.
Sagay added that a legislator in Nigeria also earns more than his counterpart in the US and the United Kingdom.
“By contrast, an American senator earns $174,000 and a U.K. Parliamentarian earns about $64, 000 per annum,” he said.
“In spite of the dismal standard of living, poverty in the country and low per capita income of Nigeria, Nigerian legislators in Abuja have awarded themselves the highest salaries and allowances in the world. In other words, the Nigerian lawmakers in Abuja are the highest paid in the world,” lamented Sagay.
According to Sagay, “in 2009, the Federal legislators received a total of N102.8 billion comprising N11.8 billion as salaries and N90.96 billion as allowances. Is the tax payer getting value for this colossal sum in the current democratic dispensation? Should five percent of Nigeria’s annual budget be spent on 109 senators and 360 House of Representatives members? “In other words, should 469 Nigerians gulp five percent of our budget, leaving the remaining 150 million of us to receive about N1, 000 each?”
“The Senate President is reported to be earning N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month, while his deputy earns N50 million per month. The Senate has allocated N1.02 billion as quarterly allowance to its 10 principal officers, known collectively as Senate leadership.
“Each of the other principal officers earns N78 million every three months or N26 million per month. This tragic state of affairs is clearly unsustainable. Those engaged in this feeding frenzy are endangering our democracy,” he lamented.
The constitutional lawyer also faulted the proposed constitutional amendment by the National Assembly, saying that the body was not yet ready to truly amend the constitution.
He said that a proposed amendment of section 65 seeking to raise the minimum qualification for membership of the legislatures from school certificate to a diploma level was rejected by the State House of Assembly.
Also, Sagay said that section 66 (1) which disqualified persons with a history of crime, bankruptcy, among others from contesting elections was deleted, thus paving way in the future for people with criminal records to be elected into public office.
After pointing out the anomalies in the proposed amendment, he stated that “the real work on the amendment or alteration of the constitution is yet to be commenced. From all indications, such work will not be undertaken by the present National Assembly; it will be the task of a future one.”
Sagay, however, contended that the greatest authority, which a legislature wielded in a democratic society, is not its legal powers as contained in the constitution, but its moral authority, as the conscience of the nation and protector of the sovereignty of the people.
“Thus, members of the legislature must be men and women of high moral authority and integrity. The legislatures must suspend from their membership, anyone who by his conduct, past or present, tarnishes the image of that Assembly or puts its credibility in doubt.
“If the legislature is to hold the executive to a minimum standard of accountability, transparency and honesty, it must itself purify its own systems, processes and membership; otherwise, no one will take it seriously,” he said.
Also speaking, Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu warned President Goodluck Jonathan not to declare his intention to contest the 2011 poll yet, saying that he may live to regret it if he rushed into the race.
The oba, known for his frank talk, warned Jonathan that a hasty decision to vie for the presidency next year might ruin his career and that he should beware of the myriads of sycophants who surround him.
He described people around him as greedy and self centred leaders who were only interested in what they could gain and not the welfare of the citizens.
—Lanre Babalola, Kazeem Ugbodaga
http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2010/07/28/nigeria%E2%80%99s-federal-legislato…