The Nigerian lawmakers in the National Assembly and the 36 State Assemblies across the federation, along with their respective agencies will be spending approximately N724 billion in 2024.
An analysis of the salaries and allowances for federal and state lawmakers shows that expenditures, salaries and allowances for lawmakers alone amount to about N50 billion, while national and state governments allocated N673.94bn for the national and state assemblies and their related agencies in the 2024 budget.
The Senate has 109 members who will be paid N8.67bn in salaries and allowances, while the 360 members of the Green Chamber will be paid N24.43bn in salaries and allowances.
A further breakdown shows that the Senate President’s annual basic salary is N2.48m, while the Deputy President’s is N2.31m. Only five of the nineteen allowances assigned to the Senate President and his deputy were assigned specific figures.
The disclosed allowances include constituency allowance, duty tour allowance, Estacode, Recess allowance, and severance gratuity. The Senate President’s allowances will cost about N33.29m, which includes a N6.21m annual constituency allowance, N248,424.25 annual recess allowance, and N7.45m for severance gratuity. The Deputy Senate President’s allowances are estimated to cost the nation about N30.94m, which includes N5.77m annual constituency allowance, N230,916.70 annual recess allowance, and N6.93m for severance gratuity. Other senators will receive N2.03m as basic annual salary and N72,137,440 in total allowances.
The total salaries of the 107 senators will be N868.3m, while their allowances will cost N7.72bn.
Furthermore, the Speaker of the House will receive an annual salary of N2.48m, while the Deputy Speaker will receive N2.29m. The Speaker’s allowances will be about N18.33m, which includes N2.48m annually for constituency allowance, N247,711 annual recess allowance, and N7.43m severance gratuity.
The Deputy Speaker’s allowances will be pegged at about N17.16m, which includes annual N2.29m for constituency allowance, N288,703 for recess, and N6.86m for severance gratuity. Other members of the House of Representatives will receive N1.99m each as basic annual salary and N58.76m in total allowances. The salaries of the 358 House of Representatives members will cost N2.84bn, while their allowances are estimated at N21.04bn.
The Speaker of a state assembly will be paid an annual basic salary of N1.64m, while the Deputy Speaker will receive N1.45m. The 36 speakers will receive about N59.04m as annual basic salary or N236.16m in four years, while the 36 deputies will be paid about N52.1m as annual basic salary or N208.40m in four years.
The 36 state Houses of Assembly have 784 members, each entitled to N1.34m annual salary or N5.34m in four years and an allowance of N12.97m. In total, the 784 members will cost their states about N4.19bn in salary and N10.17bn in allowance.
