President Buhari, Osinbajo, Governors Get N651Million Hardship Allowance In 8 Years As 133Million Nigerians Live In Poverty - Legit Reporters
President Buhari, Osinbajo, Governors Get N651Million Hardship Allowance In 8 Years As 133Million Nigerians Live In Poverty - Legit Reporters
The hardship allowance which is 50 per cent of their annual basic salary, is also enjoyed by judges in the country.
Despite at least 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty, findings have revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, state governors and their deputies have enjoyed about N651.2m hardship allowance in the last eight years of the Buhari-led administration.
The hardship allowance which is 50 per cent of their annual basic salary, is also enjoyed by judges in the country.
According to a document obtained from the website of the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMAFC), the findings focused on the amount allocated for the president, vice president, state governors and their deputies.
The RMAFC document which looked at 2007 to 2009 showed that the president is entitled to N1.76 million annually as a hardship allowance while the Vice President is entitled to N1.52 million annually.
A state governor is entitled to N1.11 million annually while a deputy state governor is entitled to N1.06 million.
The summation of the allowance showed that within a period of eight years, President Buhari would have earned at least N14.08 million as hardship allowance, while Osinbajo would have earned the sum of N12.16 million as hardship allowance, with the 36 state governors having earned at least N319.68 million while their deputies would have pocketed N305.28 million.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics had stated that about 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, while a civil society organisation under the aegis of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) recently warned that it would be a recipe for a new dimension of hunger never witnessed in Nigeria.
The PUNCH reports that the Ambassador at Large and Head of Diplomatic Missions of IHRC in Nigeria, Dr Duru Hezekiah, warned that the poverty rate, if not urgently addressed, would be a recipe for disaster.
“We are really in an economic crisis. And if it’s not checked, I tell you, the time is coming when it will go into a fiasco, a time is coming when in fact, Nigeria will be declared a ‘hunger country’, and that is why we are still appealing to the government,” Hezekiah said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, recently said that Nigerians will not die of poverty but will adjust to the economic hardships in the country, arguing that economic hardships were not peculiar to Nigeria alone but to the world at large.
Source: Sahara Reporters
