Don’t mislead Nigerians, senators’ monthly pay is N15m, Sagay counters Lawan

June 26, 2019

The Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Itse Sagay (SAN), has countered claims by the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan that senators earn N750,000 monthly.
Sagay asked the senate president to stop misleading Nigerians, insisting that senators earn N15 million monthly.
Ripples Nigeria had reported that Lawan on Tuesday said that there was no such thing as ‘jumbo pay’, adding that he earns N750,000 as salary.

However, the PACAC chairman
While speaking with newsmen on Wednesday, said Lawan was only speaking half-truth because everyone knows that the bulk of the money earned by senators is embedded in their allowances.
Sagay said, “He (Lawan) knows that nobody will take him seriously. I respect and like him but what he has done is to give half-truth. He is telling us the actual salary without mentioning anything about the allowances.

“That’s where the jumbo pay comes in when you talk of building, furniture, domestic this or that, 15 items and those items alone bring everything up to N13.5m a month. So, simply mentioning the base salary, which brings it over N14m, is not sufficient.
“So, technically, he’s right, that’s their salary. But what is his income, take-home pay, at the end of the month? It’s about N15m and we are not including so many other things we need not talk about now.
“Not only that; that leadership of the two houses earn a lot more — tremendous amounts. I don’t really want to go into issues not to create controversy but what he’s saying now is pure technical truth about salary but not about allowances, which is where the jumbo really is,” Sagay said.
The PACAC chairman, who was the first to expose the jumbo pay of federal lawmakers, said he was still trying to ascertain the allowances of principal officers.
He said, “What I have not been able to do is give details of what the leadership earn. There is the leadership aspect that I hadn’t revealed — the excess that the Senate leader (President) and deputy Senate leader, leader of the house; the same thing applying to the House (of Representatives).
“What they get — the current ones — that I have not been able to release. I had the details of the previous house. They were mindboggling; we are talking of one person getting up to N280m a year in allowances for his position. But I don’t know what they had during the Saraki era or what the present group are going to award themselves.”