‘Some of Us May Not Desire it, But Severance Package is Legal’
Nseobong Okon-Ekong holds a conversation with the former National Secretary of the Labour Party, Dr. Kayode Ajulo who advances an argument that the salary and allowances of Nigerian legislators should not be set per month, but pro rata
Nigerian federal lawmakers are already enmeshed in a struggle to justify their jumbo pay, what credible explanation can be advanced for a severance package?
The emoluments of our federal legislators have outrageously generated a lot of attention that more elucidations is needed.
It is therefore imperative to start with the prefatory note that Nigeria has a total of 109 senators who are legislative representatives of their respective states. Also, there are 360 House of Representatives members from the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory.
The salary structure of a Nigerian senator may be classified into two categories; basic sand allowances
The basic salary of a Nigerian senator can be equivalent to N2,026,400.00.
It may interest you to know that the major sources of income for Nigerian federal lawmakers are their allowances. A Nigerian senator, for instance, may have an annual allowance of N12,902,360.
The following constitute what an average of Nigerian senator is paid as allowance: utilities, entertainment recess, personal assistant, vehicle fuelling, duty tour, estacode, domestic staff; Vehicle maintenance, constituency allowance, wardrobe allowance, house maintenance, newspaper/periodic allowance
Also in addition to the allowances above, a Nigerian Senator receives an additional sum of N24,000,000.00 at the end of his 4-year term within the National Assembly.
By a comparative analysis, in the US for instance, senators have the total of $3,409,422 as annual earnings. While in the Philippines, there is a total of $4,497,957 set aside as senators’ annual earnings. Statistics also show that Kenyan senators are paid the total of $968,013 on a yearly basis. For the entire members of the UK Parliament, there is a total of £494,285,43 set aside as their annual earnings.
It is unarguable that the Nigerian federal lawmakers are the highest paid lawmakers in the world. I concur with Prof. Itse Sagay, that Nigerian lawmakers at the lower and upper chambers of the National Assembly are the highest paid legislators in the world.
Severance package or gratuity, which is the amount paid to lawmakers after their successful four-year tenure in office, also covers their political aides. For presiding members of the both chambers, their number of aides can be as high as 20 per officer.
Nigerian lawmakers have allocated N23.7 billion as severance gratuity for outgoing lawmakers of the National Assembly. The sum will also cover allowances for incoming legislators, their aides, funds for National Assembly induction and inauguration of the 9th Senate. The benefit was captured as a separate line item in the 2019 appropriation bill passed by the lawmakers. The amount was broken down to N23, 678, 770, 079 in the bill.
Interestingly I dare to hold that most of this outrageous emoluments, particularly the severance package to be paid our federal and state legislators are backed by our laws and therefore legally permissible. Section 70 of the Constitution (as amended) empowered Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC to determine the salary and allowances of members of the senate or house of reps, same with Section 6 of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission Act; furthermore, Omokolo and Others v Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and Others (2017 CA), showed that each senator, with annual basic salaries of N2,026,400.00, is entitled to a severance package of N6,079,200.00 (that is 300 per cent of the basic salary).
Therefore, while the severance package of each of the 109 senators is N6, 079, 200.00, that of the Senate President, with an annual basic salary of N2, 484, 242.50, is N7, 452, 727.50 while that of the Deputy Senate President, with an annual basic salary of N2, 309,166.75, is N6, 927, 500.25. Consequently, the total severance package for the Senate amounts to N664, 854, 627.
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