Despite condemnation that is trailing the large take home of Nigerian lawmakers especially those in the national assembly, a former senator who represented Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Abbo, has claimed that the monthly earnings of senators are not a lot of money.
He insisted their monthly take home is only “big on paper” and not enough for the demands and challenges of their office.
The controversial lawmaker was speaking during an interview on Arise TV on Sunday, where he justified the earnings by lawmakers at a time Nigerians are calling for full disclosure of their actual take home.
The lawmaker was speaking after former president, Olusegun Obasanjo had lambasted Nigerian lawmakers for earning jumbo pay against the rest of Nigerians who are in poverty.
Abbo recalled that his salary and allowances while serving as a senator was N14.4 million monthly, while current senators earn up to N29 million monthly.
“When I was in the Senate, cumulatively, all the allowances were N14.4 million per month. You have a wardrobe allowance, a vehicle allowance, and other allowances put together that were N14.4 million, including the N1 million salary.
“It is about N29 million now. N29 million looks big on paper,” the ex-lawmaker who was fined N50 million by the court for assaulting a lady, Osimibibra Warmate, in 2019 insisted.
He doubled down, stressing that “I’m saying this as an honest man. I’m not trying to support the National Assembly, and I’ve been a member of that vilified institution for five years. I am not standing with them, but I’ll bear the facts on the table.”
Abbo, in a surprise, said he became poorer after quitting his business to become a senator. “I had to leave the company I founded, in which I was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, to go into governance when I won the election.”
He continued, “I had to start subsiding my life because the money that was allocated to my office was absolutely nothing considering the demand and challenges faced by my own constituents on a daily basis.
“I had a case of just one person I took to the hospital; I spent N14 million on one person,” he alleged without providing any information.
He further alleged that, “And every month, from all over Adamawa State and other states, my office was besieged with people looking for help.
“I had to start calling some state governors to help me with cases that are being brought from their states into my office,” he further alleged without naming a single governor.
He however accused some state governors of going home with up to N1 billion for state responsibilities, saying, “From N14 million, I was paying for people’s scholarships, subsiding people’s expenses while a state governor in this country is going home with over N700 million security vote every month, some go home with N1 billion to do other security issues.”
He declared, “I am poorer, much poorer as a man when I became a politician than I was before I became a politician.”
Abbo, even though was inaugurated as a senator on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in 2023 was sacked by the Court of Appeal in Abuja. The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Amos Yohanna, was declared the rightful winner of the senatorial election that was held in February 2023.
‘I’m Honest Man, N29m For Senators Not A Lot Of Money’ – Ex-Adamawa Lawmaker Abbot is first published on The Whistler Newspaper