A former Senator who represented Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Elisha Abbo, has confirmed that indeed, Nigerian senators earn salaries considered humongous by members of the public.
This comes amidst controversies surrounding the cost of governance in Nigeria and the monthly salary of Nigerian lawmakers.
In an interview with Arise TV, Abbo said he received ₦14.4 million while serving, but the current Senators are earning ₦29 million.
He however, argued that the money senators receive is not as much as people make it out to be because of their state responsibilities.
Abbo added that considering the aid he had to render, including paying hospital bills and scholarships, the money being paid to him monthly as senator simply was not enough.
He said, “N29 million looks big on paper, just on paper, I am saying this as a very honest man. I am not trying to support the National Assembly, an institution so vilified and I have been a member of that vilified institution for 5 years, I am not siding with them, but I will bear the facts on the table.
“When I was in the senate, my monthly salary and allowances put together was about N14.4 million, and at the end of the month, the company I founded, which I was the managing director and CEO, when I won the election, I had to leave the company to go into governance, I had to start subsiding my own life.
“Because the money allocated to my office was N14 million which was absolutely nothing considering the demands, the want, the challenges.
“Every month from all over Adamawa state, in fact at a point from all over the country my office is besieged with people looking for help. At one point I had to start calling some state governors to help me with cases that are being brought from their state to my office.
“I am paying a lot of people’s scholarship in my office, I am subsidizing some people’s life in my office, while a state governor in this country is going home with over N700 million every single month, some go home with N1 billion.”
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