Lawan, Gbajabiamila, and Others To Receive N30bn As Severance Package
The review of the 2023 Appropriation Bill passed into law on Wednesday by the Senate has shown that the lawmakers will get N30.173 billion as a severance package.
According to Newscrescent, the Senate approved a budget of N21.83 trillion for the fiscal year 2023 after receiving a supplemental appropriations bill from President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
Following review and approval of the Senate Committee on Appropriations’ report, which was chaired by Senator Barau Jibrin, the Red Chamber passed the budget.
Despite the President transmitting a supplementary budget, members of the National Assembly would get a severance compensation of N30.173 billion following the ratification of the 2023 budget.
The 2023 appropriations bill had a clause that said that Senate President Ahmad Lawan, House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, and other lawmakers in both chambers would receive the package.
Lawan and Gbajabiamila stated that the N30.173 billion would also finance the induction of the lawmakers into the 10th assembly while the 2023 budget was being discussed in the “committee of supply” in both chambers.
The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) headquarters are located along the airport road in Abuja, and the sum of N10 billion was allocated for the construction of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) building and N2.5 billion was set aside for the completion of the NILDS headquarters.
The Senate received N33.267 billion and the House of Representatives received N51.994 billion from the N967.48 billion in statutory transfers.
In the budget review, N8.329 trillion was designated for non-debt recurring costs, N5.972 trillion for capital expenditures, and N6.557 trillion for debt servicing, in addition to the N967.48 billion designated for statutory transfers.
The severance package granted by the Ninth Assembly, under former Senate President Bukola Saraki, is N7 billion more than what was agreed by the Eighth Assembly, according to Newscrescent reports.
The amount of N23.678 billion was approved as a severance compensation for lawmakers at the end of the eighth legislature.
