House of Representatives senators and the eighth National Assembly members, as well as ministers appointed by president-elect Muhammadu Buhari will, on assumption of office, receive up to N9 billion in ‘welcome perks’, Punch reports.
The eighth National Assembly is to be inaugurated by Buhari on June 5, as the tenure of the seventh National Assembly expires on the same date. The eighth National Assembly will comprise 109 senatorial and 360 members of the House of Representatives seats.
The Revenue mobilisation, allocation and fiscal commission prescribes a number of non-regular allowances to the political office-holders. Among them are the housing allowance (received once a year by every incoming office-holder), the furniture allowance (received once in four years), and motor vehicle loan (received once in a tenure). These are paid at the beginning of the tenure.
Housing allowance is 200% of the annual salary of a political office-holder, furniture is 300%, and motor vehicle loan is 400%.
Punch reporters have gathered that each senator will receive N4,052,800 as housing allowance yearly. One hundred and seven senators of 109 will be collectively receiving N433,649,600m as housing allowance, while senate president and deputy senate president are not entitled to this allowance as they are fully provided for by the federal government.
Each member of the House of Representatives will be paid N3, 970,425 as housing allowance, with all 358 representatives collecting a total of N1,421,412,150 as housing allowance, excluding the speaker and deputy speaker.
For covering furnishing costs, each of the senators is to get N6,079,200, except for the senate president and his deputy; 107 senators will get a total of N650,474,400 as furniture allowance.
Each member of the House of Representatives will be paid N5,955,637 as furniture allowance, with 358 representatives collecting a total of N2,132,118,225.
Each of the senators is entitled to N8,105,600 motor vehicle loan, while each representative is entitled to N7, 940,850. This means that 107 senators will collect N867, 299,200, and 358 representatives N2, 842,824,479 for the same purpose. Since, according to the RMAFC, this allowance payable once in four years is a loan, it is indicated that it is repayable.
President-elect Buhari might shrink his cabinet; however, each state of the federation must be represented in the cabinet, and this leaves Buhari with at least 36 ministers (as opposed to 42 in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.)
Cumulatively, the ministers are to receive a total of N140,945,760 as housing allowance, N218,851,200 as furniture allowance (N6,079,200each), N281,891,520 as vehicle loan (N7, 830,320 each).
The housing, furniture and vehicle allowances payable to the lawmakers and ministers will amount to about N7.3bn. Up to N1.7bn will cater for other perks of office such as motor vehicle maintenance, fuelling, personal assistants, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities, newspapers and periodicals, wardrobe, house maintenance, constituency.
Special assistants, security and legislative aides are paid directly by the government. Medical expenses are also provided for by the government.
Special advisers and special assistants to the president are also entitled to housing and furniture allowances, special allowances and motor vehicle loan. It is not certain yet how many of them Buhari is going to appoint. The housing allowance of a special adviser is N3, 885,750; furniture – N5, 828,625; motor vehicle loan N7, 771,500.
Severance allowance is paid to each office-holder at the end of their tenure. According to Punch, the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, non-returning federal lawmakers, ministers and aides to the president are to collect N3.24bn as severance allowance.
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