Casmir Igbokwe
The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has provoked many Nigerians. It usually comes up with ridiculous proposal to raise salaries of political, public and judicial office-holders in critical periods in the country.
In 2023, the RMAFC proposed 114 per cent increase in the salaries of these public servants. It explained then that the basic salaries of these categories of workers were last increased 16 years ago. The Presidency denied approving this salary increase proposal then. It described it as fake news contrived to create ill-wind for the new administration.
Recently, the Commission came up again with a proposal to raise the salaries of political office-holders, including the president, the vice-president, governors, lawmakers, ministers, and judicial officers. According to it, the current earnings of the political office-holders are inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated. The RMAF Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, said President Bola Tinubu earned N1.5 million monthly while ministers earned less than N1 million.
He noted, “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.”
Nigerians were outraged at this latest proposal. Despite this, the Commission has reportedly started reviewing the remuneration package. At a retreat it organised in Kano, its Chairman of the Remuneration and Monetisation Committee, Mohammed Usman, said the exercise was vital to strengthening Nigeria’s governance structure.
Officially, the President’s monthly remuneration package, including allowances, is said to be N1.17 million or N14.05 million per annum. That of the Vice-President is N1.01 million per month and N12.12 million annually. A senior minister earns N650,136 monthly and N7.8 million annually. A senator takes home a monthly salary of N1.06 million which amounts to N12.76 million a year. A member of the House of Representatives earns N794,086 a month and N9.5 million a year.
It is curious that these public officers earn this low, considering their luxurious lifestyle. Do ‘superstar’ ministers like Nyesom Wike and David Umahi (who are former governors) also earn this paltry amount? Who is fooling whom?
In most sane countries, political office-holders usually depend only on their salaries and allowances. This is because holding political office is a call to service rather than an avenue to amass wealth. Many of them want to leave a worthy legacy by contributing to the growth of their societies. The United States President, for instance, earns $400,000 annually. This amounts to approximately $33,333.33 a month pre-tax. This has been the salary since 2001. It was set at $200,000 in 1969. But since the Congress doubled it 24 years ago, there has not been any pay rise.
The United Kingdom Prime Minister earns an annual salary of £172,153. This comprises £91,346 for being Member of Parliament and £80,807 for being Prime Minister. This approximates to £14,346 per month. This is in addition to other benefits though.
In Nigeria, the RMAFC turned a blind eye to the hidden allowances and perks for public officers. Unofficially, the Nigerian President is worth over N100 million a month. He and the governors get almost everything free. The state fuels their cars. Many of them fly abroad for medical treatment at the expense of the state. Most of them divert security votes and still collect kickbacks from contracts awarded to cronies at inflated costs. When the governors leave office, a number of them end up in the senate where they collect jumbo salaries and allowances as well as life pensions running into hundreds of millions of naira from their states.
This is why the new pay rise is quite insensitive and provocative. It comes at a time when the majority of Nigerians are undergoing the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. The President urged Nigerians to tighten their belts and make sacrifices. He removed fuel subsidy on assumption of office in May 2023 and floated the exchange rate. This has engendered high inflation. Many companies have shut down operations and many of the remaining ones are just struggling to survive.
The minimum wage of N70,000 a month cannot buy a bag of 50 kilogramme of rice today. Prices of fuel and other essential commodities are on the rooftops, all because of the policies of this government. Over 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty. Children are dying of malnutrition. Their sick parents cannot afford the cost of medical care. Even to afford a meal a day is a serious problem for many families.
Elsewhere, leaders receive pay cuts when things are hard in order to identify and show solidarity with the suffering masses. Ireland slashed ministerial salaries by 10 per cent during the 2008 financial crisis in that country. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Arden, and her cabinet cut their salaries by 20 per cent.
But in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Political office-holders rather revel in profligacy in times of hardship. They loosen their belts to accumulate more wealth. The President who is said to earn N1.5 million cruises across the globe in a new presidential jet worth $150 million. His convoy of exotic vehicles can make the United States President green with envy. Last year, the Vice-President was handed over a new residence worth N21 billion.
The members of the National Assembly enjoy all manner of allowances and perks of office. Soon after assumption of office in 2023, the lawmakers all went home with sport utility vehicles which cost the country about N57.6 billion. The leadership of the legislature also cruises around in a convoy that cost the country about N7 billion.
Apart from their official salaries and allowances, the lawmakers make a lot of money through some other means. Most times, we hear of padded budgets and bribes to approve budgets of ministries. Now, we have also heard of bribe for bills. This means lawmakers pay bribes before presenting their bills for discussion.
If the pay is not enough for these political office-holders, they will not fight or even kill to occupy such positions. They spend huge sums of money to rig elections and grab power at all costs just to steal the resources of the country.
It is pathetic that rather than slash the salaries and allowances of these power grabbers, the RMAFC decided to reward them with more pay. Daily Trust newspaper reported recently that the monthly salaries of the 109 senators and the cost of running their offices, amounting to about N2.354 billion, are enough to pay monthly wages of 4,708 professors at universities across the country.
A professor earns an average of N500,000 a month in Nigeria while a senator earns about N21.6 billion. Hitherto, lawmakers’ salaries and allowances were top secret. But the Senator representing Kano South in the Senate, Kawu Sumaila, said last year that he got N21.6 million as salary and running cost every month. Official salary, though, is less than N1 million after deductions.
In 2024, former President Olusegun Obasanjo accused members of the National Assembly of corruption and fixing of their salaries. He alleged that they all got N200 million which they were not entitled to, courtesy of the executive. Though the senate denied this allegation, their penchant for inordinate accumulation of wealth is legendary.
We are a country of misplaced priorities. Those who should earn more, earn less while those who should earn less, earn more. Different professional associations have either gone on strike or threatened to go on strike over poor welfare and some other issues. Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have frequently gone on strike to press home their demands for better welfare and other things. The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) have also gone on strike a number of times. The NMA threatened another strike recently if the government failed to meet its demands. Recently, 25,000 Nigerian nurses under the auspices of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives went on a seven-day warning strike over welfare issues. Nigerian nurses last went on strike over 40 years ago, precisely in 1984.
We should aim at cutting down the cost of vying for political offices in Nigeria in order to attract middle-class people with character and competence to such positions and dissuade mercantilists from occupying them. We desperately need reform of the political system if we must survive as a country. Tinubu will not give us the desired reforms. But we must continue to keep hope alive.
Re: Vanity projects amid hunger and starvation
Casmir, Tinubu should perform like the Falcons and D’ Tigress. He should stage a comeback from the economic doldrums that most Nigerians are going through. Our present situation is due mostly to the rash/incompetent manner the fuel subsidy was removed. Politically, Nigeria should be allowed to have free & fair elections as Jonathan did in 2015. If beaten in 2027, would he value the lives of Nigerians more than his life-long ambition of being a two-term president? Any president who does this should be rewarded with $100,000 and a three-bed room flat as a source of inspiration to others in future! After decimating the naira via floating of the naira policy, the rewards were not, patriotically, announced in the bashed, disgraced and worthless/valueless naira. What an irony to the naira! Even in celebrating Nigeria’s victorious teams, the naira was not mentioned by Nigeria’s president. ‘Nigeria 1st’ policy indeed.
-Mike, Mushin Lagos, 0816 111 4572
Cas, let’s go spiritual. That competent and detribalized leader you talked about is in God’s hand. We pray. Thanks.
-Sunny, Calabar, 0703 107 2639
