It's more expensive to maintain legislators in U.S., U.K. than in Nigeria, says Institute

chika ebuzor

August 31, 2015 7:00 AM

Hamalai said most of those calling for cut in the salaries and allowances of National Assembly members were not informed on how much it costs to maintain a parliament.

Nigerian Senate.

The National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) says it is much more expensive to maintain legislators in the U.S. Congress and the U.K. Parliament than in Nigeria.

Its Director-General, Dr Ladi Hamalai, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, was speaking against the backdrop of calls for a massive cut in the remuneration of Nigerian legislators.

"If you go to the United States, United Kingdom the salaries of legislators may not be much but the budget of maintaining a single legislator in the US Congress is much. Each legislator has a budget for maintaining the office; each legislator is entitled to about 18 aides."

"This is apart from the many committee staff and research staff that they have at their disposal. We calculated the salaries of the legislator in the US Congress plus his personal aides; just this two will amount to almost N254 million in a year."

"Now this is exclusive of budget for maintaining the office. They also have claims, re-imbursables. You travel to do a town hall meeting - these are eligible claims. So it is not really cheap maintaining the congress in the U.S."

chika ebuzor