The Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, has tried to clear several misconceptions around the National Assembly and its operations.
In particular, Lawan stated that the total salary of a senator is about N1.5 million and N1.3 million for a member House of Representatives.
According to him, the quarterly running cost for a senator and a member House of Representatives is N13 million and N8 million, respectively.
The Senate President stated that the quarterly office allowance for legislators covers the cost of local/international travel and transport, consulting of professional service, medical services, office stationery/computer consumables, books, newspapers, magazines and periodicals, maintenance of motor vehicles and office equipment and constituency outreach, among others.
According to him, this running cost is one of the lowest of any presidential democracy in the world.
Lawan said: “The total salary of a member of the Senate is about N1.5 million, while that of a member of the House of Representatives is about N1.3 million.
“The quarterly office allowance for legislators is what is erroneously conflicted with the monthly income to create confusion and mislead Nigerians.
“The average office running cost for a senator is about N13 million, while that of a member of the House of Representatives is N8 million.”
Lawan spoke on Monday at a lecture he tagged, “The Legislature, Legislative Mandate and The People – The Reality and The Public Perception,” organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS).
He pointed out that the budget of the National Assembly since 1999 have never gone above N150 billion, which accounts for about 3% of the annual budget.
On the issue of constituency projects and zonal intervention projects, he stated that the system allows legislators to nominate projects for implementation in their constituencies but they do not implement them.
“In line with their legislative mandate, they exercise oversight over the process.
Corruption in Nigeria is a complex issue.
“Though corruption in any arm of government is not acceptable and must be condemned, to, however, single out one arm of government without any hard evidence is to undermine the authority of that institution.
“The purchase of operational vehicles for members of the National Assembly has received extensive media attention,” Lawan noted.
He established that if civil servants from rank of assistant director and above are entitled to official vehicles and some ministers have a convoy of cars, he doesn’t see why the allocation of a Toyota camry and a Land Cruiser to members would be such a hideous proposition.
He further stated that the major factor that contributed to the negative perception of the legislature was political apathy, arising the school of thought that politics is a ‘dirty game’ and politicians are ‘dirty.’x
The Senate President also debunked the public perception of the 9th National Assembly as a rubber stamp of the executive.
According to him, Nigeria has three arms of government that are constitutionally equal but the people are heavily represented at the legislature than the other arms.
He said that for the peace and development of the nation, the three arms of government must work together as the failure and success of one arm of government will be attributed to all.
According to him, the legislature, being the first arm of government constitutionally, the closest and as well the most accessible by the people, easily lends itself to public scrutiny and sometimes take the blame even for government decisions that fall outside its legislative competence.
He concluded by promising that the 9th Assembly would continue to improve public perception on the legislature, stating that they’re not a “rubber stamp” Assembly but they only provide a safe atmosphere for national development through cooperative and collaborative efforts with the executive.
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