Nigerian Senators Earn More than Barack Obama

A Nigerian senator earns more in Salary than Barack Obama of the US and David Cameron of the UK. I'll leave you to tell how much Nigerian president goes home with at the end of each month. An Indian lawmaker must work for at least 49 years to earn the annual salary of a Nigerian senator.In the United States, while the minimum wage is $1,257 (N191, 667), a US lawmaker earns $15,080 (N2.3m) per month. In the United Kingdom, a lawmaker earns $8,686(N1.3m) monthly while the gross national minimum wage is $1,883 (N283, 333) per month. Also, Nigerian lawmakers earn higher than their counterparts in Sweden. With a monthly pay of $7,707 (N1.2m), a lawmaker in Sweden will need to work for over 12 years to equal what a Nigerian senator earn per annum.The president of the United States takes home an anual salary of $400,000 (N64.156,0m), including a $50,000 expense allowance making the president the highest paid public servant in the US. The $400,000 includes everything and $350,000 out of it is taxable.Selected States (salary per annum)The prime minister of the United Kingdom......USD 226,627.00French president......................................... USD 318,072.00South African president................................USD 296,112.00German chancelor........................................USD 296,112.00The Prime Minister of Belgium.......................USD 174,804.00President of the Republic of Korea.................USD 136,669.00President of Russia.......................................USD 122,652.00Prime Minister Portugal.................................USD 129,730.00Prime Minister Namibia.................................USD 115,155.00President of Angola......................................USD 60,000.00President Argentina......................................USD 55,139.00Prime Minister Ukraine..................................USD 61,254.00President Zimbabwe.....................................USD 18,000.00President of People's republic of China...........USD 10,633.00President Liberia..........................................USD 90,000.00Prime Minister Spain ...................................USD 102,960.00Prime Minister Namibia................................USD 115,155.00President Namibia.......................................USD 164,506.00President of Colombia ................................USD 120,685.00Prime Minister of the Netherlands.................USD 190,740.00Prime Minister Ireland.................................USD 264,000.00Prime Minister Denmark..............................USD 264,533.00President Mexico........................................USD 328,839.00USD 328,839.00 ........................................USD 427,886.00President Austria........................................USD 422,231.00President of the European Council................USD 508,916.00NIGERIAN SENATORSBasic Salary (BS) = N2,484,245.50Hardship Allowanc: 50% of Basic Salary = N1,242,122.75Constituency allowance: 200% of BS = N4,968,509.00Furniture Allowance: 300% of BS = N7,452,736.50Newspaper allowance: 50% = N1,242,122.70Wardrobe allowance: 25% = N621,061.37Recess Allowance: 10% = N248,424.55Accommodation: 200% = N4,968,509.00Utilities: 30% = N828,081.83Domestic Staff: 35% = N863,184.12Entertainment: 30% = N828,081.83Personal Assistance: 25% = N621,061.37Vehicle Maintenance Allowance: 75% = N1,863,184.12Leave Allowance : 10% = N248,424.55One off payments (Severance gratuity): 300% = N7,452,736.50Motor Vehicle Allowance: 400% of BS = N9,936,982.00Total per month = N29, 479, 749.00 A senator's anual salary = over N182 millionmultiply by 109 senators (don't forget the House of rep, ministers, ambassadors, ...)In addition to the regular and legitimate salaries and allowances of over N17 million ($113,333) and N14.99 million ($99,933) which senators and reps were collecting yearly and the irregular allowance of estacodes, duty tours etc, they were also collecting over N192m ($1.28m) and N140m ($0.93m) respectively in illicit quarterly allocation which is not provided for by RMAFC.Effectively, a Nigerian senator was taking home at least $1.40m ($1.28m quarterly allocations + $0.113m regular salaries and allowances) as against the $0.174m an American senator takes home hence a Nigeria senator earns at least 8 times as much as an American senator and more than 3 times the American president.Whereas a Senator in the U.S earns N21, 146,000, the same as a member of the House of Representatives; a UK Member of Parliament earn £64,766 (N14, 896,180)In other words, a Federal Legislator in Nigeria is paid more than double what a Member of British Parliament earns per annum.Senate President David Mark alone takes N250 million quarterly or N83.33 million per month. Senate Deputy President Ike Ekweremadu gets N150 million per quarter or N50 million a month.Mark and Ekweremadu earns in 4 months, six times what the UK Prime Minister earns in a year. David Cameron goes home with £190,000 per anum (N43, 700,000)In a newspaper news article entitled ‘An Assembly for looting’ written by Musikilu Mojeed with Elor Nkereuwem, the authors rightly claimed that each of the 360 members of the House of Representatives were getting N35 million in cash money in quarterly allocation while each of the 109 Senators pockets N48 million each. These allocations have however been slashed by 20% to N27 million ($180,000) and N38 million ($253,333) respectively due to the 20% reduction requested by the late president.