- Criticisms have trailed the N13.5 million running cost allowance Nigerian senators receive every month
- Some Nigerian lawyers berated the senators for allocating such amount for themselves
- One of the lawyers, Femi Falana, blamed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission for condoning such payments
Some legal practitioners in the country have berated the Nigerian Senate for receiving N13.5 million running cost allowance every month.
The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, disclosed the details of what every senator earns as salary and running cost, which has since generated backlash from Nigerians.
Lawyer and human rights activists, Femi Falana, commended the lawmaker for his revelations, but said what lawmakers earn goes beyond what was declared by the senator, adding that the exposure confirms a statement by the chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council, Itse Sagay, that Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, Premium Times reports.
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NAIJ.com noted that Falana blamed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) for condoning such payments without questioning since 1999. He tasked the Buhari-led administration to ensure that no public office holder is paid unapproved salaries and allowances.
He also called on Nigerians to support the whistleblower (Sani), especially now that his colleagues “are planning retributive measures against him for making such revelation”.
Another lawyer, Lekan Alabi, said: “There is something fundamentally wrong with their approach to running the business of the government of Nigeria. There is something fundamentally wrong with their upbringing.
“It is only in Nigeria that people who are doing nothing are being paid hugely for idleness. It is only in Nigeria where people don’t work; yet receive N13.5million per month for running cost. Running cost for what? How many times do they sit in a year? When they resume, you hear that they are going for recess, when they come back, they’ll say they’re going for Easter. After Easter, they’ll say they are going for Ramadan break. After Ramadan break, you’ll hear New Year break. So what is the justification for N13.5 million monthly running cost?
“What I think is that because the Nigerian society is very weak, there is a lot of injustice; economic injustice, oppression, depression, a lot of wrong doings in the society. That is why the crime rate is high. How many of them can go to their constituencies and move on the street without being kidnapped. That goes to show that in a society where you have economic injustice, you cannot have peace.
”What are they running? They have their aides, their aides are collecting salaries. The clothes that they put on, we buy the clothes for them, so what is the definition of the running cost? What do they run for one month that they are entitled to N13.5 million in a country where staff are being owed salaries, where workers are not being paid?
“As far as I’m concerned, the running cost is illegal, it’s immoral and it can only be induced by people who are insensitive to the state of economy in Nigeria. And it also reflects that Buhari’s presidency is not just weak but also inefficient."
Ola Adeosun, another legal practitioner, said: "I know as a fact that this running cost thing is a “fraud”, which virtually all public office holders fraudulently create for themselves outside the budgetary earnings, just like the phoney “security votes” of governors and presidents."
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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that The lawmaker representing Kaduna Central senatorial district in the Senate, Shehu Sani, revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as running cost.
The lawmaker stated that apart from the running cost, senators also earn N750,000 monthly salary.
He said there is no specific instruction on what the running cost should be used for, adding that lawmakers must provide receipts to back up their expenses from the running costs.
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Source: Naija.ng