The Senate has issued a strong rebuttal to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegations that lawmakers set their own salaries and receive special financial packages, challenging him to provide concrete evidence of his claims.
In a statement released on Sunday by the Senate’s spokesperson, Senator Adeyemi Adaramodu, the legislative body clarified that senators only receive the salaries and allowances allocated to them by the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC), as mandated by the constitution.
Adaramodu emphasized that federal lawmakers do not determine their wages, nor do they implement constituency projects, contrary to widespread misconceptions.
Obasanjo, who served as Nigeria’s president from 1999 to 2007, had on Friday in Abeokuta, during a meeting with six members of the House of Representatives, criticized the National Assembly for allegedly fixing their salaries and emoluments. The visiting representatives, led by Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, are co-sponsors of a bill advocating for a single six-year term for the president and governors, as well as power rotation between the North and South.
During the meeting, Obasanjo remarked, “With all due respect, you’re not supposed to fix your salaries. But you decide what you pay yourselves, including the allowances you give yourselves, like newspaper allowances. You give yourselves all sorts of things, and you know it is not right. It is immoral, yet you are doing it, the Senate is doing it, and you are beating your chests about it. In some cases, the executive gives you what you’re not entitled to. You all got N200 million each.”
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The Senate expressed shock and disappointment over Obasanjo’s statements, labeling them as hypocritical and unfounded. The Senate stressed that its members have no authority to determine their wages or allowances.
The statement from the Senate read: “The Nigerian Senate is deeply disturbed by the misleading narrative that it determines its own salaries and receives special financial packages from the Presidency. This baseless assertion was amplified during a visit by a group of House of Representatives members to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“To set the record straight, the Senate receives only the salary allocated constitutionally by the Revenue Mobilisation Fiscal Allocation Commission. We challenge anyone, in any position of knowledge or authority, to present evidence to the contrary.
“The Senators or the National Assembly do not and cannot fix their salaries. Any suggestion otherwise is uncharitable and misleading. It’s an attempt to unjustly vilify the legislature by those who engage in political hypocrisy.”
