NASS Running Cost: ₦29m inadequate for constituents’ demands, says Abbo

A former senator who represented the Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Abbo, has claimed that the N29 million lawmakers receive as an allowance only looks big on paper.

Abbo said this in an interview on Arise TV on Sunday, August 18, 2024, adding that the money is not even enough to cover the responsibilities and challenges of the lawmakers’ roles.

The former senator also revealed that his salary and allowances as a senator amounted to N14.4 million, not N29 million.

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“When I was in the Senate, cumulatively, all the allowances were N14.4 million per month. You have a wardrobe allowance, a vehicle allowance, and other allowances put together that were N14.4 million, including the N1 million salary,” he said.

“It is about N29 million now. N29 million looks big on paper. I’m saying this as an honest man. I’m not trying to support the National Assembly.

“I have been a member of that vilified institution for five years. I am not standing with them, but I will lay the facts on the table.”

According to Abbo, who talked about his personal struggles, he became poorer after leaving his business to become a senator.

“I had to leave the company I founded, in which I was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, to go into governance when I won the election,” he said.

“I had to start subsidising my life because the money that was allocated to my office was absolutely nothing considering the demands and challenges faced by my own constituents on a daily basis.

“I had a case of just one person I took to the hospital; I spent N14 million on that one person.

“And every month, from all over Adamawa State and other states, my office was besieged with people looking for help.

“I had to start calling some state governors to help me with cases that were being brought from their states into my office.”

Abbo stated in the interview that some state governors go home with no less than N1 billion for state responsibilities.

“From N14 million, I was paying for people’s scholarships, subsidising people’s expenses, while a state governor in this country is going home with over N700 million in security votes every month. Some go home with N1 billion to handle security issues,” Abbo said.

“I am poorer, much poorer as a man since I became a politician than I was before I became a politician.”