Information gleaned in the second quarter of the 2025 budget performance document of Lagos State government indicates that the 40 Lagos State House of Assembly members would be spending N6.2 billion for the purchase of 40 property in Lagos or Abuja.
Already, as at the end of second quarter of the 2025, the budget performance document revealed that N1 billion, which is about 16.1 per cent of the money budgeted for the 40 houses had already been spent.
The indication is that each of the lawmakers will be entitled to at least a house, as there are only 40 legislators in the Lagos State House of Assembly.
A breakdown of the N6.2 billion revealed that each of the lawmakers is expected to get a house worth about N155 million each. It is also presumed that the houses are parting gift for each of the lawmakers because the 2024 budget performance revealed that though N1.22 billion was the initial budgetary provision for 40 properties, the assembly increased it to N6.2 billion. However, only N126 million was spent, which was just two per cent of what was allocated. This is according to the budget document.
Yet in the 2023 budget performance document, while N1.22billion was allocated to buy 40 property, at the close of the financial year in December, 2023, about N1.131 billion was spent for the purchase of 40 houses. That year, the line item for buying of property recorded 92.7 per cent budget performance.
However, whether the N1.131billion that was spent to buy 40 property in 2023 was for the 40 lawmakers who were members of the ninth assembly, whose legislative roles got terminated that year, especially since 2023 was the termination of ninth assembly and the inauguration of the tenth assembly, the budget document was silence about that.
It was noticed that the bulk of the N1.131 billion was used up before the fourth quarter of 2023, as only N424 million were spent in the fourth quarter of 2023 for the buying of the 40 property.
Meanwhile, it is not clear whether the provision of houses for Lagos assembly members was initiated by the executive or the legislature. This is because although the 1999 Constitution (Section 124(5)) permits state Houses of Assembly to legislate on pensions or gratuities for former governors and their deputies only.
In recent years, some states have even moved to revoke or scale back pensions for ex executive officials, prompting broader questions about fiscal responsibility and equitable treatment of all public servants.
For instance, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, during the presentation of 2021 budget estimates, said he would seek to repeal the Public Office Holder (Payment of Pension) Law, which has been controversial.
Addressing the lawmakers during the budget presentation, Sanwo-Olu said his administration had concluded plans to repeal the Public Office Holder Payment of Pension Law, which prescribes pension for former governors and deputy governors in the state.
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