By Haruna Salami
The secrecy surrounding salaries and emoluments of federal lawmakers, which has brewed suspicion, were uncovered on Monday in Abuja by the Senate President Senate, Ahmad Lawan.
Lawan also revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has surpassed his predecessors on Bills assent.
Making submissions to these effect in a paper presented at the First Distinguished Parliamentarians Lecture Series organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), the Senate President said monthly Salary of a Senator is N1.5 million while that of a member of House of Representatives is N1.3million.
He said the N13 million thrown into the public space few years back as monthly salary of a Senator was 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.
“The quarterly office allowance for legislators is what is 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 .
The Senate President in the lecture titled “The Legislature, Legislative Mandate and People – The Reality and the Public Perception”, said N13 million and N8 million quarterly office running costs for a member of the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, are the lowest of any Presidential democracy in the world.
The allowances as enumerated by him , cover costs of local/international travel, consulting of professional services, medical services, office stationeries/computers, consumables, books newspapers, magazines, maintenance of motor vehicles and office equipment, etc .
On legislative template, Lawan in his presentation, said President Muhammadu Buhari has surpassed all his predecessors on bills assent with 84 already assented to by him which is higher than bills assented to by any of his predecessors.
“President Umaru Musa Yar’adua ( l2007 – 2010) , gave 38 bills Presidential Assents, Good luck Jonathan (2010- 2015), assented to 40 bills while President Muhammadu Buhari had assented to 84 bills within the last two and half years in office”, he said .
Also the 9th National Assembly has within the last two and half years of its existence, initiated a total of 2,500 bills which are in different stages of legislative procedures some of which have been passed and assented to, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The feats Lawan explained, were attained as result of harmonious working relationship between the legislative and executive arms government .
“As significant increase reflected in the number of bills assented to by the President in the current dispensation , so it is with number of bills initiated and considered by the 9th National Assembly which as at November 2021, hit the figure of 2,500.
“These are obviously gains of the harmonious working relationship existing between the legislature and the executive since 2019 which however making some Nigerians tag the National Assembly as rubber stamp”, he said.
“The 9th National Assembly is not a rubber stamp Parliament but one geared towards ensuring that the required synergy exists between the legislature and the executive for good governance in Nigeria “, he stressed.
In his welcome address, the Director General of NILDS, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman , said the lecture series is conceptualized by the Institute as veritable platform of addressing contemporary issues in the country and deepening the practice of democracy.
