Buhari adviser says Nigeria will burn if he reveals how much Saraki earns

Professor Itse Sagay who is Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), says Nigeria will go up in flames if he discloses how much Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Reps Speaker Yakubu Dogara earn.

The issue of the jumbo pay of lawmakers and top government officials returned to the front-pages after Senator Shehu Sani disclosed that a senator is entitled to N13.5million as running cost monthly and N200million for constituency projects--aside their basic salary.

Last year, Sagay tendered outrageous lawmakers’ salaries and allowances of his own. He said senators take home N29million monthly.

His disclosure put him firmly on a warpath with the leadership of the senatewho called Sagay “a sadist, rascal, jaded, outdated and senile professor”.

'Blow up the country'

In a chat with Punch, Sagay said the outrage over what senators earn will be child's play if he discloses what presiding officers of the national assembly take home.

“There are many things the press doesn’t know yet. If you come to know the allowances that the leadership of the two houses are getting… My God! It will blow up the country. What is the Senate President getting? It is not the ordinary N13million”, Sagay was quoted as saying.

He added that; “What does he get as Senate President? What is the leader of the House getting, what is the deputy leader of the House getting? What is the Deputy Senate President getting?”

Sagay also promised to reveal all like he’s always done.

“What are the minority leaders getting in both houses? Go and find out. It is an explosive stuff, I tell you. Eventually, I will come out with the figures. I am working on them now. When I am ready, I will come out with them.”

Hiding

Sagay also said what Sani disclosed is only a fraction of what lawmakers take home. He accused the lawmakers of concealing their real allowances.

“What they released then was their salaries which the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission approved for them. What they are hiding now are the allowances they voted for themselves.

“The salary details released was just about N700,000 but what they voted for themselves is about 20 times that amount. That is the whole point and they were hiding it.

“I came out with the figures last year and they wanted to cut off my neck and now it has come out in the open and Sabi Abdullahi is saying it is nothing new but you were denying it in the past. So, they have a guilty conscience because they know what they are doing is shameful.”

Governors

Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, also said if he reveals what State Governors earn, most Nigerians will lose sleep for weeks.

The salaries and emoluments of politically exposed persons is often a hot potato topic in a country where the minimum wage stands at a miserly N18,000.

80 percent of Nigerians survive below the poverty line; with most of the country’s oil wealth getting looted by the leadership elite through the years.

The senate says the recent revelation by one of its own is nothing new