Investigations revealed that each lawmaker is, by law, entitled to five aides including Senior Legislative Aides (SLA), Legislative Aides (LA), Legislative Assistants (LA), Personal Assistants (PA) and a secretary; while presiding and principal officers can appoint a retinue of special assistants, advisers, senior special assistants, press secretaries and chief of staff.
The SLAs, according to the National Assembly service rules, must be officers not below grade levels 13 to 15 for House members and 15 to 16 for Senators, the Legislative Aides on levels 10 to 12, Legislative Assistants, level 09; Personal Assistants, level 08; while Secretaries, usually placed on level 07, must hold a minimum of National Diploma.
The SLA's average monthly salary is put at N200,000, Legislative Aides, N150,000; Legislative Assistants, N100,000; Personal Assistants, N60,000; and Secretaries, N50,000.
They are also, on assumption of duty, paid 28-day allowances and 300 percent of their annual basic salary as severance allowances while leaving amounting to about N5 billion.
A letter from the Office of the Minister of Finance addressed to the Clerk of the National Assembly dated July 21, 2011 revealed that the Senior Legislative Aides who served in the last House got N3.954 million each as severance allowances, the Legislative Aides, N1.609 million each; Legislative Assistants, N1.3 million each; Personal Assistants, N1.16 million each; and secretaries, N.779 million each.
A cumulatively, the 28-day allowance, monthly, annual and four years salaries and severance allowances indicates that the government spends as much as N17, 908,000 on each SLA every four years; N7,400,000 on each Legislative Aide; N10,418,000 on each Legislative Assistant, N5,200,000 on each Personal Assistant and N3,958,000 on each secretary.
A summation of all the salaries, allowances and other emoluments therefore shows that the government spends N22, 488,000,000 on the 500 legislative aides every four years.
Daily Trust
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