National Assembly members to get N8.64bn as wardrobe allowance next week

The newly inaugurated members of the
National Assembly are to receive N8.64
billion as Wardrobe allowance next week.
According to ThisDay, N8.64 billion
wardrobe allowance translates to N17.5
million for each of the 360 members of
the House of Representatives and N21.5
million for each of the 109 senators. This
is asides the other allowances they are
entitled to which includes furniture,
housing and vehicle.
While the wardrobe allowance will cover
the entire four-year tenure that they will
be in office, their housing allowances are
to be paid on a yearly basis. Based on the
approval of the Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC),
the housing allowance for political office
holders is usually 200 per cent of their
annual salaries, the furniture allowance is
300 per cent of annual salaries, while a
motor vehicle loan is pegged at 400 per
cent of their annual salaries.
Going by this policy, each of the 107
senators besides the Senate President and
his deputy, will be paid N4,052,800 as
housing allowance. This will be paid to
them every year, translating to
N433,649,600 as housing allowance to be
paid to the Senate annually, while the
Senate President and the Deputy Senate
President will be provided accommodation
by the federal government.
On the other hand, each member of the
House of Representatives will be paid
N3,970,425 as housing allowance. This
implies that the each of the 358 House of
representatives members aside the
Speaker and Deputy Speaker, will collect a
total of N1,421,412,150 as housing
allowance.
Like that of the Senate, the speaker and
deputy speaker will be given
accommodation by the federal
government. Following the monetisation
of entitlements of public officials
undertaken by the Olusegun Obasanjo
administration, the lawmakers lost the
right to occupy houses built and
maintained by the government. Hence, the
federal government sold the houses
previously occupied by the lawmakers to
them.
Since the principal officers of the Sixth
National Assembly benefited from the sale
of the houses, the Federal Capital Territory
Administration (FCTA) is currently building
new ones for the four presiding officers of
both chambers. On the furniture
allowance, each of the senators will be
paid N6,079,200 while the furniture for
both the Senate president and his deputy
will be provided by the government. The
total sum to be paid to the 107 senators
as furniture allowance will be
N650,474,400.
In the House of Representatives, each
member will be paid N5,955,637.50 as
furniture allowance. This means that the
358 members will collect a total of
N2,132,118,225 for furniture.
On the vehicle loan, each of the senators is
entitled to N8,105,600, while each House
member is entitled to N7,940,850.50,
meaning that the 107 senators will
collectively take N867,299,200 as vehicle
loans while the 358 House members will
get N2,842,824,479 for their vehicles.