By Mohammed Bello Doka
In a country where over 133 million citizens live in multidimensional poverty, Nigeria’s federal lawmakers continue to attract global outrage for pocketing some of the highest salaries and allowances in the world, despite ranking among the least productive parliaments. At the centre of this debate are the 109 senators, each of whom reportedly takes home an average package that dwarfs not only the wages of ordinary Nigerians but also the pay of legislators in much richer nations.
The controversy over lawmakers’ pay came to a head when Senator Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker, blew the whistle in 2018, revealing that each senator received ₦13.5 million monthly as “running cost” in addition to a ₦750,000 basic salary. Despite denial from the National Assembly, the information was never successfully refuted. This disclosure has since been reinforced by multiple civil society organisations, including BudgIT and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), which argue that the Nigerian parliament is a drain on scarce national resources.
The Pay Structure: Salary vs. Allowances
Officially, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) pegs a senator’s annual basic salary at about ₦2.48 million (roughly $1,600 monthly at official exchange rates). However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. What swells their take-home is an array of allowances covering accommodation, furniture, vehicle maintenance, domestic staff, newspapers, wardrobe, duty tour, and constituency operations. When lumped together, these allowances exceed 200% of the lawmakers’ basic salaries.
The allowances do not stop there. Senators also enjoy estacodes (foreign travel allowances), medical coverage, security vote entitlements, and committee-related perks. In practice, virtually every official activity is monetised, with costs often duplicated across multiple votes. Despite public outcry, these packages are protected by layers of secrecy.
The Constituency Project Controversy
Beyond their monthly pay, senators control significant sums through constituency project allocations, budgeted annually under “Zonal Intervention Projects.” Each senator is estimated to have access to at least ₦200 million annually, ostensibly for grassroots development. However, several investigative reports by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and civil society watchdogs have uncovered widespread diversion and inflation of contracts. In many cases, projects exist only on paper or are left abandoned after partial execution.
Annual Payout: The Numbers Don’t Lie
When salaries, allowances, and constituency project allocations are combined, each Nigerian senator potentially has access to over ₦470 million annually. At current official exchange rates, this translates to about $300,000 per senator per year—a staggering figure in a country where the new minimum wage stands at ₦70,000 monthly (roughly $46 at the parallel market rate). By this calculation, one senator earns well above 100 times the annual pay of a minimum wage worker.
Beyond Salaries and Allowances
The official figures already shock the conscience, but the financial windfall stretches far beyond what is recorded on paper. Senators enjoy:
Estacodes for foreign trips, often running into thousands of dollars per day, even when their trips are fully sponsored by host governments or international organisations.
Medical treatment abroad, fully paid for by the Nigerian state, in sharp contrast to crumbling public hospitals that ordinary citizens must endure.
Official vehicles, renewed every four years, at costs that exceed industry market rates. Reports by budget monitoring groups have revealed that the procurement of vehicles for lawmakers frequently runs into billions, far above real value.
Sitting allowances and committee allowances, which are paid in addition to salaries, ensuring that even routine appearances are monetised.
The ‘Ghana Must Go’ Politics
Perhaps the most scandalous aspect of Senate earnings is the flow of unrecorded funds, popularly known in Nigerian political slang as “Ghana Must Go.” These are cash inducements allegedly distributed to lawmakers by the Presidency or ministries to ensure the passage of key bills, budget approvals, or sensitive votes. While successive governments have denied such practices, former lawmakers and insiders have testified to their existence. The practice was most notoriously exposed during budget padding scandals, where legislators were accused of inflating figures in exchange for hefty kickbacks.
The Senate is thus not just a legislative body; it has become, in the eyes of many Nigerians, a marketplace where loyalty is traded, and decisions are purchased. Civil society organisations such as SERAP and BudgIT have repeatedly called for greater transparency, warning that democracy itself is endangered when the legislature becomes financially compromised.
Comparing Global Standards
Globally, the disparity is glaring. A Nigerian senator earns, in combined pay and perks, more than lawmakers in the United States, where annual pay is pegged at $174,000, despite America’s economy being more than 20 times larger. In the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament earn about £86,000 annually—roughly $110,000. In South Africa, the figure is about $70,000. In Kenya, after years of protest, MPs now earn roughly $60,000 annually. By contrast, each Nigerian senator has access to over $300,000 annually in direct and indirect benefits—not counting the untraceable “Ghana Must Go” inducements.
The Anger Elsewhere, The Silence in Nigeria
The anger that would erupt in many parts of the world if their legislators were to take home what Nigerian senators earn is not difficult to imagine. In Indonesia, a modest increase in parliamentary allowance led to mass protests across major cities, with citizens insisting their lawmakers were insensitive to the plight of ordinary people. In Kenya, a similar attempt by Members of Parliament to award themselves fat allowances triggered a nationwide uproar, forcing the courts to intervene and cap their pay. In South Africa, the backlash against lawmakers’ benefits is so strong that even the ruling African National Congress has had to publicly defend every increment.
Yet in Nigeria, where poverty is more widespread and unemployment rates soar above 33%, the story is different. The anger is muted, carefully managed, or crushed by a political system designed to shield the country’s most privileged lawmakers. Senators not only draw the highest parliamentary pay package in the world, but they also do so in a country with one of the weakest welfare protections for citizens.
Abandoning Their Core Mandate
The role of the Legislature is mainly to fix the ills of our society through the enactment of relevant and requisite laws. They have abandoned that main role of lawmaking and carved out for themselves, pathways to stuffing their pockets while in bed with the Executive arm of our government.
This unhealthy alliance has reduced the Senate to a rubber stamp, where the interest of the people is routinely sacrificed on the altar of personal enrichment and political expediency. Instead of acting as a check on the Executive, they have become willing accomplices in undermining accountability and deepening corruption.
Least Performing, Most Rewarded
The tragedy is not just in what senators earn, but in what they deliver. Reports from Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Yiaga Africa reveal that Nigeria’s Senate has one of the lowest outputs of any legislature on the continent. Fewer than 10% of bills introduced are passed, and even fewer become law after presidential assent. Committee oversight, which should be the backbone of accountability, is compromised by inducements and political bargaining.
For a country still struggling with power supply, insecurity, poor infrastructure, and mass unemployment, the spectacle of its lawmakers living in opulence while doing little legislative work is a slap in the face of struggling citizens. And unlike other countries where public outrage restrains legislative greed, in Nigeria the system is carefully maintained to preserve the comfort of the few at the expense of the many.
The Call for Reform
Groups like SERAP, BudgIT, and the ICPC have consistently called for sweeping reforms to reduce the cost of governance. SERAP has gone as far as filing multiple lawsuits, demanding that the National Assembly disclose its full budget and expenditure. BudgIT argues that unless the pay of lawmakers is drastically cut, the gap between government officials and citizens will remain a recipe for unrest. The ICPC, in its annual constituency project tracking report, has shown how billions allocated for development are diverted or left incomplete.
The question that remains unanswered is how long Nigeria can sustain a system where its senators, the highest paid in the world, continue to earn more than 100 times the minimum wage, while delivering so little in return. For millions of Nigerians struggling under inflation, unemployment, and failing public services, the Senate has become the most visible symbol of a democracy hijacked by the privileged few.
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Corridors of Power