BEVERLY HILLS, March 7, (THEWILL) – In a revelation that may pitch the Senate against the masses, embarrass and further dent the credibility of the Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara led National Assembly, the Senator representing Kaduna Central, Senator Shehu Sani has disclosed that the 109 Senators in the Senate receive N13.5m monthly ($450K Annually at N360 – $1) as running cost outside their monthly salary and the contentious and fraudulent constituency projects that members use to line their pockets.
He put each senator’s monthly consolidated salary and allowance at N700, 000.
Sani’s disclosure is a confirmation of information already in public domain that the leadership and management of the National Assembly have been denying for years.
The activist cum politician spoke in an interview with TheNews Magazine.
“I think what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million every month,” the senator said.
He explained that though there is no specification on what the funds was meant for, each lawmaker is mandated to provide receipts to back up their expenses.
“But what I am saying is that that money (N13.5 million per month) must be receipted for what you do with it. But what you are given to go and spend without any accountability is N750, 000.
“The constituency project itself is given on a zonal basis and almost every senator will go with a constituency fund of about N200 million, but it is not the cash that is given to you.
“You will be told that you have N200 million with an agency of government for which you will now submit projects equivalent to that amount. And it is that agency of government that will go and do those projects for you.”
He said the process of executing the projects were fraught with fraud.
“Now, the corruption comes when the projects are not done and the money is taken. But right now, it is difficult to do that because NGOs and transparency groups have come into it. They track every allocation made to you and where they are being used.
“So it’s becoming difficult for what used to happen in the past to happen now… But I can tell you that I would love a situation where we do away with running costs, constituency projects and leave senators and members of House of Representatives with salaries.
“There are issues that we need to understand. First, I don’t believe that members of the National or even state assemblies should be involved in carrying out what is called constituency projects.
“When people are elected into the National Assembly, they should just be involved in law making, raising motions, bills and also performing oversight functions. But we live in a society where people cannot differentiate between the legislators and the executive.
“When the people come to you, they want you to build roads, dig boreholes, build hospitals, schools, give money, pay school fees for them. Now, if we have a society in which people will stop asking legislators to do those things, then there is no need (for the allowances). But funny enough, if you are very active in the National Assembly in making laws and you don’t embark on projects in your constituency, you cannot in any way be appreciated by the people you are there to serve because the electorates in United States are different from the electorate in the United States and Africa.”
