Many Nigerians have expressed outrage that despite Nigeria’s struggling economy, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation, and Fiscal Commission has revealed that it will be reviewing the salaries of political officeholders.
The Chairman of RMAFC, Elias Mbam, says the review would align with the remuneration of the political office holders with “current realities” in the country.
The thought of this possible increase in their pay packages has sparked criticisms from the masses as Nigerian political office holders are reputed to be among the highest paid in the world despite the country’s revenue challenges.
The Federal Government had admitted in 2019 that the country was not generating enough revenue and planned to take more loans to fund part of the 2020 budget.
Nigeria is rated as a ‘lower-middle-income country by the World Bank and it is currently the poverty capital of the world, taking over from India in 2019.
Pay Packages of Public Office Holders in Nigeria
According to the breakdown made available by the RMAFC, the following are the basic salary, per annum of Nigeria’s public officeholders.
| President Mohammadu Buhari | N3.5m |
| Vice President Yemi Osinbajo | N3.03m |
| Minister | N2.02m; |
| Minister of state | N1.95m |
| Special Adviser | N1.94m |
| Governor | N2.22m |
| Deputy governor | N2.11m |
| Commissioner | N1.33m. |
Apart from the basic salary, the President is entitled to allowances such as hardship allowance, which is 50 percent of his salary, about N1.757m, and consistency allowance – 250 percent of his salary, which amounts to about N8.79m.
The President’s gratuity is 300 percent of his salary, amounting to N10, 544,115, and he is also entitled to a leave allowance of 10 percent of his salary, as well as a vehicle loan which amounts to 400 percent of the salary.
Whereas the Vice President, governors, members of the National Assembly and some other categories of political office holders also receive similar allowances in different amounts.
Other regular allowances enjoyed by the President, Vice President, the governors and members of the National Assembly include personal assistant, constituency, vehicle fuelling/maintenance, domestic staff, entertainment, recess, newspaper/periodicals, and utilities.
Also included are house maintenance, security, special assistant, furniture, wardrobe, duty tour, accommodation, estacode, and medical allowances.
The salaries of senators and House of representative members are often not disclosed by the RMAFC which has generated a lot of controversies.
According to outgone Kaduna State senator, Shehu Sani, who affirmed that his colleagues receive N700, 000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances, and the big one is N13.5 million monthly as running cost.
Shehu Sani revealed that Senators are entitled to N200million naira constituency project allowance which is given on a zonal basis but not given as cash to the lawmakers. The N200 million is given to an agency of the government for which the senator submits projects equivalent to that amount.
Recall that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission ICPC has revealed that lawmakers connive with these agencies to siphon public funds.
Civil Societies Kick Against Pay Bump of Political Office Holders
Since the advent of democracy in Nigeria, political office holders have been criticized for their heavy remunerations. This in addition to poor accountability of public funds which is believed to be responsible for ‘their lavish lifestyles’.
Based on this, Nigerians are calling for a reduction of political office holders’ pay packages insisting “these exorbitant remunerations contribute to the high cost of governance and impunity whilst in office”.
The Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution described any upward review in the salaries and allowances of politicians as wicked and unacceptable, noting that Nigerians would not accept it.
The CDNDC Convener, Ariyo Dare-Atoye, said…
“How can the commission think of increasing their allowances when our political leaders are the highest paid in the world despite being the highest under-performers across the globe?”
The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association has recommended downward adjustment in salaries and the allowances of all political office holders to make the offices unattractive.
The Director-General, NECA, Dr Timothy Olawale encouraged RMFC to adjust salaries and allowances of all political office holders to reduce the attractiveness of political offices.
Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, said “any move that would increase the emoluments of politicians’ was a mockery of the avowed plan to cut down the cost of governance”
Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, Auwal Rafsanjani warned “that pay rise for politicians could lead to political violence.
Rafsanjani noted that the proposal was coming when the government was finding it difficult to pay workers reasonable wages.
The possible increase of remunerations of Public office holders is seen as insensitive considering that the organized Labour has been in a tussle with the state government to implement the N30, 000 minimum wage.
For this administration to prove its mandate to improve the economy and cut the cost of governance, the lawmakers need to discourage any pay increase by the RMAFC and if possible take a pay cut to reflect the realities of the struggling economy.
