Recently, the senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, revealed that he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as “running cost.”
Mr. Sani said there was no specification on how the funds should be spent as each senator is only required to provide receipts to back the expenditure.
A few days after the revelation, Senate spokesperson, Aliyu Abdullahi, confirmed he and his colleagues receive the running cost monthly.
However, the payment is not approved by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the body responsible for fixing the salaries and allowances of public and political office holders in Nigeria.
The development has fuelled reactions from civil society groups (CSOs) and Nigerians alike, as many frowned at the illegal payment in a country with dire need of funds for development; especially as Nigeria, with about 170 million population and N18,000 minimum wage, has inadequate funds for capital projects.
The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, in December 2017 said the federal government had released N1.2 trillion to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government for implementation of capital projects contained in the 2017 budget; implying the government was only able to finance about half of the capital projects by that time.
However, the running cost received by senators would have been enough to execute some of the projects.
From June 2015 when they assumed office till date (34 months), each senator has pocketed N472.5 million as running cost. Also, the 109 Nigerian senators would have pocketed over N51.5 billion. This does not take into account the fact that principal officers of the senate are believed to receive more money than the others.
So what would N472.5 million received by each senator or at least N51.5 billion received by all of them have done for Nigerians?
Source: Premium times
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