About 3, 000 legislative aides who served during the 8th National
Assembly between 2015 and 2019 are eagerly awaiting the payment of
their severance benefits which may total about N8 billion.
Some of them are already seeking fresh appointments with the newly inaugurated Senators and Representatives.
The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission in its
Remuneration Package for Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders,
Senators, members of the House of Representatives and many of the
legislative aides recommends payment of 300% of annual basic pay to them
as severance entitlements.
Each of the 109 Senators and 360 House members has five legislative
aides, totalling 545 and 1, 800 respectively or a cumulative total of 2,
345 who are collectively entitled to varying amounts that add up to
well above N8 billion.
The additional perks of Principal Officers in both the Upper and
Lower Houses includes a large number of additional aides serving as
Chiefs of Staff, Advisers, Special Assistants and others and severance
packages are to be paid to them too.
According to dependable sources at the National Assembly, the
severance benefits for Senators and members of the lower house have been
finalised while a special committee which is working on those of the
legislative aides is about finalising details so that legislative aides
can be paid before the end of next month.
Their bosses who served as Senators and members of the House of
Representatives, including those who were re-elected already had part of
their severance benefits, totalling about 300, 000 to 400, 000 deducted
for payment on ‘depreciated asset and equipment’ such as television
sets, refrigerators, computers and so on.
According to a National Assembly official who requested anonymity
what aide will receive will depend on his Salary Grade Level and the
number of years spent serving his principal.
“Severance benefits of those on Level 16 and above are calculated
with the formula of 38.5% multiplied by the annual salary and then,
multiplied by 300% for those who served for upwards of four years while
those who served for two years will have theirs calculated on the basis
of 150%,” he explained.
On Tuesday, April 23 this year, the Chairman, Senate Committee on
Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje revealed that former lawmakers in
the National Assembly allocated N23.7 billion for settlement of the
severance pay of federal legislators in the 2019 national budget out of
the N125 total allocation for the National Assembly.
Goje said the decision to increase the N8.826 trillion 2019
Appropriation Bill brought before a joint sitting of the National
Assembly by President Buhari on December 19 , 2018 to N8.916 trillion,
to accommodate some new items including N23.7 billion for settlement of
severance, inauguration plans for incoming legislators and other items.
“There is a slight increase in the budget deficit. This is as a
result of the provision for severance benefits of the outgoing
legislators and legislative aides, the induction/orientation and
inauguration of new legislators, all of which occur once in four years,
but were inadvertently not captured in the 2019 budget proposal,” Goje
stated. .
However, the huge expenditure is only following the usual norm and
the guidelines legitimized since 2007 by the Revenue Mobilization and
Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) under which the lawmakers and their aides’
severance gratuity package is arrived at by calculating 300 per cent of
their annual basic salaries.
The Nation gathered that some of the legislative aides who served
between 2011 and 2015 are still in court, demanding legal intervention
to compel the National Assembly to admit short changing them by paying a
severance package calculated at 200% of annual salaries instead of
300%. In accordance with the RMAFC’s Remuneration Package for Political,
Public and Judicial Office Holders, Senators, members of the House of
Representatives are to receive 300% of annual basic pay.
Thus, Senators whose basic pay, excluding numerous allowances, is
N560, 000 are to receive N20 million each and members of the House of
Representatives whose basic salary is N540, 000 are to receive N19, 440,
000 each.
With 109 Senators, the total package for Senators’ severance benefit
is N2. 1 billion while the total for members of the House of
Representatives amounts to about N 7 billion.
One source said: “The severance benefits of Principal Officers in the
two Houses, especially the Senate President, Speaker and their Deputies
are in an entirely special class.
“For instance, the norm is that the Senate President or Speaker
leaves with almost the entire six to eight classy cars in his car pool,
leaving one big bullet proof Mercedes Benz which his successor is likely
to replace anyway.
“Note that the Senate President is not just heading the Senate, he is
also the Chairman of the National Assembly while the Speaker, as
Alternate Chairman of the National Assembly is also entitled to special
benefits.”
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