Lagos lawmakers are set to benefit from a controversial housing scheme, as fresh details from the 2025 second-quarter budget performance document show that N6.2 billion has been earmarked for the purchase of 40 houses in Lagos or Abuja. The document further reveals that N1 billion, representing 16.1 per cent of the allocation, had already been spent by mid-year.
Each of the 40 members of the Lagos State House of Assembly is expected to receive a house valued at about N155 million. Records indicate that this provision was not entirely new. In 2024, N1.22 billion was initially budgeted for 40 houses, but the allocation was later raised to N6.2 billion. However, only N126 million was eventually spent, amounting to just two per cent performance.
In contrast, the 2023 budget reflected more aggressive spending. Out of the N1.22 billion allocated for the same purpose, N1.131 billion was expended, representing 92.7 per cent performance. Most of the funds were utilised before the fourth quarter, with N424 million spent in the final three months. It remains unclear whether those houses were intended for members of the ninth Assembly, which was dissolved that year, or for the incoming tenth Assembly.
The budget records do not clarify whether the housing provision originated from the executive or the legislature. Constitutional questions also linger, since Section 124(5) of the 1999 Constitution limits pension and gratuity laws at the state level to governors and their deputies. Attempts by some state assemblies to broaden entitlements have often faced backlash.
For instance, former Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson declined to sign a 2019 bill granting life pensions to state legislators, citing constitutional overreach. Similarly, pension laws for lawmakers remain controversial nationwide, with states like Abia and Benue recently repealing such benefits for former governors and deputies. In Lagos, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu proposed repealing the pension law for ex-governors in 2021, but lawmakers instead reduced the benefits by 50 per cent.
