The lawmaker representing Kano South, Senator Sumaila Kawu, has revealed that he takes home over N21m monthly as a senator.
In an interview with the BBC Hausa Service, Kawau said the official pay of N1 million fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) drops to around N600,000 after deductions.
However, he added that there are other allowances that elevate their total pay to N21 million per month.
The lawmaker said the allowances include office running, newspaper money, local travel and others.
He spoke one day after RMAFC, the body empowered by law to fix salaries and allowances of political office-holders, claimed that each of the 109 senators in the upper chamber receives a total of N1.06m in salary and allowances per month.
RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, said this as a form of clarification in response to recent controversies over the real amount each lawmaker earns per month.
But in his BBC Hausa interview, Kawu said, “The amount of salary received per month is less than N1 million. If there are cuts, it comes back to about N600,000. In the Senate, each senator is given N21 million every month as the cost of running his office.”
