Flaks For NASS Over Outrageous N8.64B Wardrobe Allowance For Lawmakers

SAN FRANCISCO, June 16, (THEWILL) – Federal lawmakers in Nigeria are receiving flaks from the Nigerian public following revelations that a whooping N8.64 billion would be paid out to Senators and members of the House of Representatives as wardrobe allowance next week.

469 members make up the National Assembly.
Nigerians on social media handles are spoiling for a fight with the legislators over this ridiculous and outrageous allowance that is outside the allowances they would get as furniture, housing, vehicle, travel, media amongst several others when several state workers are being owed over 6 months in unpaid wages.

Hashtags (#9billion) and #OccupyNASS amongst several others seeking to mobilise people against the payments have gone viral on twitter. Several posts on Facebook and social media forums against the payments have also hit the roof.

Some of the posts on the subject include: “Time to rally for CHANGE. This is definitely not the CHANGE we want or voted for. Daylight robbery. NASS & Senate.”

“We should also look at our cost of governance. We can’t budget N9billion for NASS while some states are owing over 11months Workers Salary.”

“As an ex Rep, news of 9billion wardrobe allowance very strange to clarify Nass must officially react.”

Under the payment plan, the 109 senators will each pocket N21.5 million while the 360 members of the House of Representatives will pocket N17.5m.

Based on the approval of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the housing allowance for political office holders is usually 200 per cent of their annual salaries, the furniture allowance is 300 per cent of annual salaries, while a motor vehicle loan is pegged at 400 per cent of their annual salaries.

Accordingly, each of the 107 senators besides the Senate President and his deputy, will be paid N4, 052,800 as housing allowance.

This sum will be paid to them every year, translating to N433, 649,600 as housing allowance to be paid to the Senate annually, while the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President will be provided accommodation by the federal government.

On the other hand, each member of the House of Representatives will be paid N3, 970,425 as housing allowance upon assumption of office.

This implies that the 358 representatives aside the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, will collect a total of N1, 421,412,150 as housing allowance. Like that of the Senate, the speaker and deputy speaker will be given accommodation by the federal government.

Following the monetisation of entitlements of public officials undertaken by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, the lawmakers lost the right to occupy houses built and maintained by the government.

Hence, the federal government sold the houses previously occupied by the lawmakers to them.

Since the principal officers of the Sixth National Assembly benefited from the sale of the houses, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) is currently building new ones for the four presiding officers of both chambers.

On the furniture allowance, each of the senators will take away N6, 079,200 from the budget of the National Assembly, while the furniture for both the Senate president and his deputy will be provided by the government.

The total sum to be paid to the 107 senators as furniture allowance will be N650, 474,400.

In the House of Representatives, each member will be paid N5, 955,637.50 as furniture allowance.

This means that the 358 members will collect a total of N2, 132,118,225 for furniture.

On the vehicle loan, each of the senators is entitled to N8, 105,600, while each House member is entitled to N7, 940,850.50, meaning that the 107 senators will collectively take N867, 299,200 as vehicle loans while the 358 House members will get N2, 842,824,479 for their vehicles.