9 Questions About The N8B Clothing Allowance You Were Too Embarrassed To Ask

1. What’s up with the talk on social media about 8 billion naira clothing allowance for Nigerian legislators?


Apparently our newly inaugurated National Assembly is set to receive a whopping 8.64 billion naira to spend on clothes.

2. What? About 9 billion Naira on clothes for one person? Is this a joke? Or is it possible that someone forgot how to count the number of zeros on a figure?

Actually, the 9 billion naira is not for one person, it is the collective sum that is set to be received by every member senator and member of the House of Representatives.

This money is described as a wardrobe allowance, the amount will be split between both chambers of the National Assembly with the 109 members of the Senate receiving 21.5 million naira ($108,000) each while the 360 members of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, will each receive 17.5 million naira.

3. Is it just me or the gluttony exhibited by our legislators is about to make me vomit all over my body?

Don’t just puke over your body just yet.

Aside from a wardrobe allowance, the National Assembly will also receive other furniture and car loan allowances. The furniture allowance will see 107 senators receive 650 million naira while 358 House of Representatives members will receive total of 2 billion naira. The lawmakers can also access car loans with senators possibly provided with 867 million naira and House of Representatives members provided with 2.8 billion naira in car loans. While ordinary members of both chambers get these allowances, two principal officers from each chamber, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House and their deputies will have furniture provided by the Federal Government.

4. I once read that Nigerian Legislators are the highest paid in the world, is that true?

Nigerian legislators, among the world’s top paid, receive annual salaries of between 32 million naira per annum. Nigerian legislators are not the highest paid in the world, they are the second highest paid, lagging behind Australia. Nigerian legislators earn about $180, 000 per annum while that of Australia earns about $210, 000 per annum.

Lawmakers in Nigeria earn around 32 million naira annually more than British lawmakers. While the lawmakers earn so much, regular Nigerians survive on the 18, 000 naira monthly minimum wage.

5. If I may ask, What is the clothing allowance of legislators in the United States and Britain?

In the United States, supplementary Congressional allowances make no provision for clothing and in the Britain, which was rocked by its own allowance scandal in 2009, clothing expenses are not listed among expenses members of parliament can claim for.

6. Is this the "change" we voted for? What are Nigerians doing about this situation?

The campaign tagged #OpenNASS is led by BudgIT, a civil start-up and outraged Nigerians have taken to social media to vent.

Vent on social media? is that the best we can do?

There are already plans by some Nigerians to protest nationwide.

Nigerians can draw inspiration from events in Kenya where citizens forced legislators to rethink increases in their pay with fierce protests in 2013.

After their demands for higher pay sparked public outcry and protests, Kenyan legislators agreed to a cut (of about $45, 000) in pay – though their new wage is still more than 40 times the country’s average income.

Activists spilled cow blood outside parliament buildings, calling members of parliament ‘MPigs’ and branding parliament “a piggy bank.”

Others organized the burning of 221 coffins outside parliament to protest the attempt by the MPs to give themselves a $110,000 bonus at the end of their term.

7. These legislooters, sorry legislators must be milking Nigeria dry, don’t you think?

What was your fist clue?

Was it when Sanusi alleged that the National Assembly spends 25% of the national budget? Let’s rephrase that for easier understanding. Sanusi said 468 people get to spend 25% of the national budget and leave the remaining 75% for 180 million people.

If that is not enough to put you in shock, remember that the yearly allocation for the National Assembly, which has less than 10,000 individuals on its payroll, surpasses the annual budgets of 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states including Katsina, Benue and Jigawa all with populations of more than 4 million people.

8. But Nigeria is in a mess financially, how are we able to give the legislators this huge amount of money?

Its true that Nigeria is dealing with financial issues which can be traced back to the slump in global crude oil prices.

Fortunately for our lawmakers and unfortunately for Nigerians fund is in a special category called statutory transfer which mandates the federal government, after receiving revenues, to make the legislators’ funds immediately available before other considerations

9. Is there any hope for Nigeria at all?

Senate President Bukola Saraki has denied that federal lawmakers get N9billion wardrobe allowance. He also said there were plans by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to reduce salaries and allowances of federal lawmakers.

Saraki, who stated this on his Twitter handle yesterday after meeting with the RMAFC boss, said the annual wardrobe allowance for each senator is N506,600 per annum, about N2.25 million ‎for their four-year tenure.

It not the best of ideas to believe anything a politician says, but when given the benefit of doubt then there might be hope for Nigeria afterall.