A member of the House of Representatives representing Egbeda/Ona-Ara federal constituency, Akin Alabi has revealed that he earns a total sum of N9 million every month, following a breakdown of his salary, allowances, severance packages as a lawmaker.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker who is also a businessman and CEO of Nairabet, had promised in a Twitter post on Friday, April 5, to announce his earnings when he started being paid as a member of the green chamber.
“I don’t know what legislators truly earn until I start earning it. When I start earning it, the whole of Twitter will know,” he had tweeted.
I don’t know what legislators truly earn until I start earning it. When I start earning it, the whole of Twitter will know.
— Oloye Akin Alabi (@akinalabi) April 5, 2019
A few months later, in the early hours of Monday, December 2, Akin Alabi was being called out by many Nigerians for failing to fulfill his promise.
However, we gathered that the lawmaker had already disclosed his earnings as he pledged in a blog post titled 30 Days In Abuja on Thursday, July 11, a month after he and his colleagues were sworn in.
According to the blog post, Alabi said he collects N700, 000 as basic salary, and an allowance of N3,970,000.00, plus N7,940,000.00 for both Housing and Furniture which he said was only paid once in four years.
“I’m told we would get a car loan of about N7m and I’m told after 4 years, we will get N5m as severance. You can call that your gratuity or retirement benefit.
“In a nutshell, the total a lawmaker will be getting at the national assembly, plus salaries (basic salary is N700k), plus housing and furniture allowances, plus newspaper allowance, plus travel allowance, plus office materials and supplies allowance (we have to run the office ourselves), plus retirement benefit, plus EVERYTHING will average out to about N9m monthly in TOTAL. Nothing extra. You are NOT GETTING ANYTHING ELSE outside these,” he said.
Akin Alabi also emphasized on the allegations that lawmakers diverted funds meant for their constituency projects.
“Lawmakers do not get paid money for constituency projects. You “nominate” projects for your constituency and the relevant agencies will execute them. If you are coming to the National Assembly to get rich, it is either you are deluding yourself or you are planning to do something illegal,” he said.