SERAP to Saraki: The sky won’t fall if you tell us allowances of senators

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Senate President Bukola Sakari to “urgently explain to Nigerians if it is true that a Nigerian Senator gets N29 million in monthly pay, and over N3 billion a year”.

Itse Sagay, chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC), had last week alleged that a senator gets N29 million in monthly pay.

But the upper legislative chamber has not responded to Sagay’s claim; it has also not disclosed the details of the salaries and allowances of its members.

In a statement issued on Thursday by Timothy Adewale, deputy director, SERAP, the organisation said the sky would not fall if details of the salaries and allowances of senators were published on a dedicated website.

“SERAP believes that releasing the information on salaries and allowances of members of the senate would encourage a nuanced, evidence-based public debate on what would or should be a fair salary for a member of the senate,” it said.

“It is by making transparency a guiding principle of the national assembly that the senate can regain the support of their constituents and public trust, and contribute to ending the country’s damaging reputation for corruption.

“For the senate, practicing transparency should start with the leadership being open to Nigerians on the salaries and allowances of members.”

SERAP said disclosing the amount earned by senators would not hinder their performance as lawmakers, rather, it would increase the trust of Nigerians in them.

“SERAP strongly believes that it is by knowing exactly how much their lawmakers earn as salaries and allowances that members of the national assembly can remain accountable to Nigerians and our citizens can be assured that neither fraud nor government waste is concealed,” it said.

“If the senate under your leadership is committed to serving the public interest, it should reaffirm its commitment to openness by urgently publishing details of salaries and allowances of members.

“But when the senate leadership routinely denies access to information on matters as basic as salaries and allowances of our lawmakers because some exceptions or other privileges override a constitutional and statutory disclosure requirement, open government would seem more like a distant, deferred ideal than an existing practice.

“The continuing refusal by the senate to reveal concrete information about the salaries and allowances of their leadership and members could ultimately endanger the healthy development of a rule-of-law state.

“Transparency is necessary for accountability, and helps to promote impartiality by suppressing self-interested official behavior. It also enables the free flow of information among public agencies and private individuals, allowing input, review, and criticism of government action, and thereby increases the quality of governance.”