THE Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has hinted at plans to review the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria.
The Commission described the current earnings as inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated in the face of rising responsibilities and economic challenges.
Speaking on Monday in Abuja, RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu presently earns N1.5m monthly, while ministers receive less than N1m — figures that have remained unchanged since 2008.
“You are paying the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria N1.5m a month, with a population of over 200 million people. Everybody believes that it is a joke,” Shehu said.
He added, “You cannot pay a minister less than N1m per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best without necessarily being involved in some other things. You pay either a CBN governor or the DG ten times more than you pay the President. That is just not right. Or you pay him [the head of an agency] twenty times higher than the Attorney-General of the Federation. That is absolutely not right.”
The RMAFC boss also stressed that the commission was not responsible for setting the minimum wage for civil servants or public sector workers, but was constitutionally mandated to determine the salaries of political, judicial, and legislative office holders.
“We are strictly restricted to political office holders, governors, senators, legislators, ministers, DGs, and other people,” he explained.
Shehu also noted that despite public hostility towards pay increases for politicians, it was important to maintain realistic remuneration that reflected their responsibilities.
“It’s about time that people like you and others should support the commission to come up with reasonable living salaries for ministers, DGs, and the President,” he said.
But the Nigeria Labour Congress kicked against the plans by the RMAFC to review upward the salaries of political office holders, saying the proposal ignores the country’s worsening inequality and the hidden perks that already inflate earnings in government.
But Nigeria’s organised labour criticised the plan by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to review upward the salaries of political office holders, saying the proposal ignores the country’s worsening inequality and the hidden perks that already inflate earnings in government.
The union insisted that the real problem is not the official salary figures but the allowances and perks of office that remain hidden from public view.
“The President’s salary may be about N1.5m a month, but when allowances are added, the total package can exceed N100 million,” an NLC high-ranking official who did not want his name mentioned due to a lack of authorisation to speak on the matter, told The PUNCH.
“Allowances for medical care, housing, digital services, internet access, security, travel, and even COVID-related expenses are all buried in the system. If the government can publish the president’s salary, then it should also publish these allowances, because that is where the true burden lies.”