I receive N21m monthly, says Kano senator

Senator Sumaila Kawu, the Kano South lawmaker, has disclosed that he earns over N21m monthly as a total take-home package.

This is as Nigerians are battling with hardship from the policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Kwawu, in an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, revealed that the official pay of N1 million fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) drops to around N600,000 after deductions, but other allowances take their total pay to N21 million per month.

He spoke 24 hours after RMAFC, the body empowered by law to fix salaries and allowances of political office-holders, claimed that each of the 109 senators in the upper chamber receives a total of N1.06m monthly salary and allowances.

RMAFC Chairman Mohammed Shehu said this as a form of clarification in response to recent controversies over the actual amount each lawmaker earns monthly.

But in his BBC Hausa interview, Kawu said, “The amount of salary received per month is less than N1 million. If there are cuts, it comes back to about N600,000. In the senate, each senator is given N21 million every month as the cost of running his office.”

The lawmaker said the allowances include office running, newspaper money, local travel and others.

It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had stirred up controversy while speaking in Abeokuta, Ogun State Capital when receiving House of Representatives members led by Ikenga UgoChinyere, where he tackled National Assembly members over their allowances.

“In your case, with all due respect, you’re not supposed to fix your salaries. But you decide what you pay yourself, the allowances that you give yourselves (including) newspaper allowances.

“You give yourselves all sorts of things, and you know it is not right. It is immoral, (yet) you are doing it, the Senate is doing it, and you are beating your chests about it. In some cases, the executive gives you what you’re not entitled to. You all got N200 million (each).”