- Prominent Nigerians are speaking up against the N13.5 million monthly allowance of senators
- The critics lamented over the running cost of the National Assembly while submitting that N13.5 million is too much monthly allowance
Prominent Nigerians and groups, on Sunday, March 11, spoke out against the N13.5 million monthly running cost being paid to Nigerian senators.
Punch reports that Femi Falana, Yusuf Ali and Prof. Itse Sagay, in separate interviews condemned the allowance as a waste of national resources and praised Senator Shehu Sani who brought the payment to the attention of the public.
Recall that Sani had earlier come out to say each senator received N13.5 million monthly as running cost apart from the N700,000 consolidated salary and allowances paid to each of them.
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Falana said Sani’s revelation had proved that Nigerian legislators were the highest paid in the world.
Sagay said: “I’ve always said they earn too much. This figure by Sani does not include constituency allowances, which is in billions of naira. We still have budget padding from which millions are made by them. By the time you put all that together, you can see that these people are collecting a huge chunk of the Nigerian budget.”
The Campaign for Democracy president, Usman Abdul, said the huge earnings by the senators contributed to the bastardisation of the economy. You can take good care of over 100 graduates from a senator’s salary. The legislature should deliberate on the abject poverty and unemployment in the country,” he said.
The vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Monday Ubani, said Nigerians must demand a review of the lawmakers’ earnings.
Ubani said: “It means that Nigerians have not been getting a fair deal from our legislators. If a single person will be earning that kind of money in a country where the minimum wage is N18,000; something has to be done. We need to insist on a review of these jumbo allowances."
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NAIJ.com earlier reported that the National Assembly has confirmed that members of the Senate receive N13.5 million monthly as running cot.
The Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi, said the revelation recently made by the Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani that members of the Red Chamber receive N13.5 million monthly is "nothing new".
Abdullahi said the details reveled to the public by Sani is already contained in budget for the National Assembly.
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Source: Naija.ng