See how much and his cabinets earn.

Twelve months after the Revenue
Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission pledged to give the nation
reviewed salaries and allowances for
political office holders, lawmakers and key
government officials still cart home about
N9.18bn annually in salaries and allowances.
Investigation show that while RMAFC had
completed work on the review of the
emoluments of political office holders about
November 2015, the new emoluments have
not seen the light of the day due to the
politics involved in the process. As a result,
key political office holders still earn the full
packages they earned before the decision to
reduce the earnings of political and judicial
office holders.
The annualised salary and allowances of the
president is N14,058,820, while that of the
vice-president is N12,126,290. President
Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President
Yemi Osinbajo had announced their
decision to take only 50 per cent of the
salary and allowances approved for them,
meaning that they take home N7,029,410
and N6,063,145 respectively. However, most
of the allowances and entitlements of the
President and Vice-President are not
monetised but fully provided by the state.
Apart from salary, the regular allowances
that are monetised for the President are
only hardship allowance, N1,757,350.50 per
annum; and consistency allowance,
N8,786,762.50 per annum.
For the Vice-President, the hardship
allowance is N1,515,786.25 per annum,
while the consistency allowance is N7,
578,931.25 per annum. The irregular
allowances for the President are the
severance allowance – 300 per cent of the
annual salary or N10,544,115 – and leave
allowance – 10 per cent of the annual salary
or N351,470.50. The irregular allowances of
the Vice-President are the severance
allowance – 300 per cent of the annual
salary or N9, 094,717.50 – and leave
allowance – 10 per cent of the annual salary
or N303,157.25. Other allowances that the
President and the Vice-President are
supposed to enjoy which are not provided
in monetary terms include motor vehicle
fuelling and maintenance, special assistants,
and personal assistants.
Others are domestic staff, entertainment,
utilities, security and newspapers/
periodical
allowances. These irregular allowances
include accommodation, furniture, duty tour,
estacode, medical, and severance/
gratuity.
For a senator, the salary and allowances add
up to N20,669,280 per annum. Those of a
member of the House of Representatives
add up to N17,271,347.75. There are 109
senators and 360 representatives. With the
exception of the Senate President, the
Deputy Senate President, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives and his deputy
whose allowances are provided by the state,
lawmakers get a total of N8,397,965,454.
5.
For a minister, the salary and allowances
add up to N14,705,164 while those of
presidential aide add up to N14,085,843.75.
The Head of Service and the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation are on the
same salaries and allowances.
There are 36 ministers and 15 presidential
aides. Their annual emoluments add up to
N770,083,888.25. RMAFC had in June 2015
set in motion the process for the downward
review of the existing salaries and
allowances of political, public and judicial
office holders when it set up a committee
chaired by Mr. Abdullahi Inde. At the
inauguration, returning Chairman of RMAFC,
Mr. Elias Mbam, had urged the committee to
be conscious of the prevailing economic
situation and the need to reduce cost of
governance so as to free more funds for
development. The current remuneration of
public office holders is guided by the
Remuneration Act of 2008. A review became
imperative following dwindling government
revenues occasioned by falling prices in the
international oil market.
However, investigation showed that when
Mbam left the commission following the
completion of his first tenure in November
2015, the acting Chairman of RMAFC, Mr.
Umar Gana, made a number of attempts to
present the new packages to President
Buhari but failed. “The acting chairman
could not get the green light from the Villa
to present the remuneration package to the
President,” an authoritative source told our
correspondent. “That is why the new salary
structure has been stalled. The law requires
that the President must get the
recommendation from RMAFC who would
table it before the Federal Executive Council
for ratification. Then, it is presented to the
National Assembly.” The current allowances
of lawmakers are in categories. Some are
tagged regular allowances while others are
tagged irregular allowances.
Regular allowances are those that are paid
on monthly basis along with the monthly
salaries while irregular allowances are paid
at other frequencies ranging from annual to
once in four years. There are also other
allowances not included in this calculation
that are paid not at any fixed periods but as
many times as they occur in the year. The
allowances are calculated as percentages of
the annual salaries. While some are higher
than the annual salaries; others are lower.
Basically, both senators and Reps are paid
the same percentages of their salaries as
allowances except in constituency allowance
where senators are paid 250 per cent while
Reps are 100 per cent. Vehicle maintenance
and fuelling alliance is 75 per cent; domestic
staff, 75 per cent; entertainment, 30 per
cent; utilities, 30 per cent; wardrobe, 25 per
cent; newspapers, 15 per cent; house
maintenance, five per cent; and personal
assistants, 25 per cent.
The irregular allowances include housing
allowance, 200 per cent of their annual
salaries; furniture allowance, 300 per cent;
recess allowance, 10 per cent and severance
allowance, 300 per cent. Housing allowance
is paid once a year. Furniture allowance is
paid once in four years and recess
allowance is paid when the lawmakers are
on recess and they go on recess four times
in a year. Severance allowance is at the end
of the four-year tenure. There are other
allowances that the lawmakers are not paid
directly but provided and paid for by the
government. These are special assistants,
security and legislative aides. What this
means is that those engaged in these
capacities are paid directly by the
government as the allowances cannot be
claimed by political office holders. These
allowances apply to senators and Reps.
Medical expenses are also borne by the
government when they have need for the
services. The lawmakers are also entitled to
tour duty allowance, estacode (when they
travel).For a senator, the tour duty allowance
is N37, 000 per night; the estacode is $950
per night. For a member of the House of
Representatives, the tour duty allowance is
N35, 000 per night; while estacode is $900
per night. Ministers and presidential aides
also enjoy similar allowances. Experts,
however, are not worried by the official
earnings of political office holders but by the
unofficial ones. Lawmakers, for instance, are
said to get some quarterly payment.