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Harassed and
cornered by public outrage over their jumbo pay, members of the
National Assembly are desperately weaving a scheme to protect other
allowances, an investigation has shown.

Under the new
dispensation, legislators have agreed to halt the collection of the
ex-legal payments, hitherto hidden under a sardonic pay head called
“office running cost”, according to sources familiar with the new
arrangement.

Legislators arrived
at this mind shift, according to the sources, at a meeting of some
members of the House of Representative, in Abuja on Saturday, June 19.

NEXT found out that
in order to ensure they retain their pay haul, the lawmakers have
decided to “re-channel their money into committees, which is then
distributed to members on committee basis in a way that each member
will still get the amount that is due to him.” One of the attendees at
the meeting, who spoke off record, said the legislators were already
getting wary about the noise their allowances are generating and have
decided to ‘re-strategize.’ “They (the legislators) are worried about
the public outcry, especially over the extra budgetary allowance each
honourable gets. You know the senators also get their own. So, since
all legislators belong to at least one committee, the idea now is to
re-channel the money into committees and ensure that each person still
gets his money,” he said. “You know that committee budget, expenses and
allowances are approved by the legislators themselves.”

“Office running cost” and committee allowances

Each member of the
House of Representatives already gets an RMAFC unapproved N35 million
naira each as “office running cost.” “The money is broken down. I can’t
recollect all now, but I remember that when I checked in 2007, each of
us was getting about 500, 000 naira per quarter as stationery
allowance,” the source said.

The source also
confirmed that before the decision to divert the office running cost to
committees, the various committees were already a way for them to make
money.

“There is already
enough money to be made from the committees. Do you know that we get
our “overseas trip allowances” up front? So, if there is a budget of N5
million for each member of a committee to travel overseas for a
quarter, you get the money up front. So whether you eventually go with
other members for the tour or not, you already have your money, even if
all the trips eventually get sponsored,” the source said.

Secrecy required

Unlike in the
United Kingdom, where all the entitled salaries and allowances of the
parliamentarians are made public and even put on the parliament’s
website, that of the Nigerian National Assembly is not made public.

The annual basic
salary of members of the House of Commons for example is 65, 738 pounds
(1.6 million naira), though chairmen of select committees and ministers
in the government earn more.

Also unlike in
Nigeria where each representative earns N500,000 a quarter, totalling
N2 million a year for stationery (it is higher for senators), whether
he/she buys the stationery or not; in the UK, the stationery is bought
centrally, with each parliamentarian entitled to receive from the
common pool to the tune of 7,000 pounds (1.75 million).

Efforts to speak
with House spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, were unsuccessful. But the
Senate spokesperson, Ayogu Eze, refused to be drawn into the matter.

“What do you want
to know about the issue of the office running cost. Your newspaper has
been publishing fiction about the matter,” he said.

When NEXT explained
that this was the opportunity for him to clear the air over it,
particularly as we understand that the money has been diverted into
committees, he said, “I’m not inclined to speak on this matter. Your
newspaper published that the matter is in court. Let us wait for the
outcome of the court process.” He then politely said farewell.