Sen.
Shehu Sani, senator representing Kaduna central senatorial district, has
revealed he and his colleagues receive N13.5 million monthly as running
cost.According
to the senator, the running cost was in addition to over N700,000
monthly consolidated salary and allowances of each senator. “I think
what we can say is that the running cost of a senator is N13.5 million
every month.”
Sani said this in an interview he granted THENEWS magazine but was made available online by Sahara Reporters.
His
words: “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 N750,000.00. 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.
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 reps with salaries. And also,
the public should be informed that nobody should come to any senator’s
house asking for any kobo. That also would be helpful.
The
lawmaker said he was against the idea of legislators carrying out
constituency but said constituents might not know the relevance of
lawmakers if they do not construct projects in their constituencies.
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
lawmaking, 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 electorates in the United
States and Africa.
We live in an underdeveloped society with
a lot of poverty, misery and wants. What people want is for you to
address those basic fundamental issues that affect their lives. If we
can be done with that, it would be okay. Now, you are talking of bogus
salaries and bogus allowances – there are three steps you need to
consider – the first has to do with the fact when you represent the
people, expectations arose from your immediate and the larger
constituencies.
But I agree with you that the salaries and
allowances of lawmakers should not be discreet, but what is discreet
about it when you can write to Resource and Fiscal Mobilization
Commission to get everything about what a senator earns?
The only
money you are not expected to account for is your salary and the salary
of a senator is about N750, 000.00 per month. The other one, the running
cost of office must be accounted for. You must provide a receipt for
every expense you make.”