Former Nigerian senator Ishaku Abbo, who represented Adamawa North Senatorial District, has claimed that the monthly earnings of Nigerian senators, which currently stand at approximately N29 million, are “big on paper” but insufficient for the demands and challenges of their office.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, Abbo disclosed that during his time in the Senate, his cumulative salary and allowances amounted to N14.4 million per month. He said, “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.”
Abbo further explained that today’s senators earn up to N29 million, but he believes this amount is still inadequate. “It is about N29 million now. N29 million looks big on paper. 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,” he stated.
The former senator also shared that he became poorer after leaving his business to serve in the Senate. “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. I had to start subsidizing 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,” he said.
Abbo recounted spending N14 million on a single individual’s medical expenses and constantly receiving requests for financial assistance from people across Adamawa State and beyond. “And every month, from all over Adamawa State and other states, my office was besieged with people looking for help,” he added.
He also highlighted the disparity between senators’ earnings and those of state governors, alleging that some governors receive up to N1 billion for state responsibilities. “From N14 million, I was paying for people’s scholarships, subsidizing 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,” Abbo said.
The remuneration of Nigerian lawmakers has long been a topic of public debate, with recent criticism from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who accused lawmakers of fixing their own salaries. The Senate has denied these claims, and the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) stated that each senator receives a total of N1.06 million in salary and allowances per month.
Abbo concluded by expressing that his experience in politics left him financially worse off, saying, “I am poorer, much poorer as a man when I became a politician than I was before I became a politician.”
