VANGUARD
OUTRAGE, yesterday, greeted the justification of jumbo pay for National Assembly members and political office holders by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, which said the lawmakers do not earn outrageous salaries.
RMAFC Chairman, Muhammed Shehu, told NAN in Abuja that it was untrue that public officeholders were getting jumbo salaries, saying: “I want to disabuse the minds of Nigerians. It is not true that people are getting jumbo salaries.“
Last June, the RMAFC boss had said the salaries of politicians, judicial and public office holders would be increased by 114 per cent.
He said the salary of President Bola Tinubu was less than N1.5 million, while ministers earn less than N1 million.
“I know of an average CBN worker that is not even a director, who earns more than a minister. People in NNPC, NCC, Ports Authority earn huge salaries. What is the salary of a governor? What is the salary of a legislator?
Shehu said what was considered outrageous earnings were statutory office running costs, which should ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission, NASC.
“I know some people will say members of the National Assembly get up to N10 million or N11 million monthly. Those are not salaries, they are like operating costs of running their offices which in other societies the legislator does not have to see because there is a structure.
“Once you get elected, you make that structure from your constituency office to computers to logistics to the size of your constituency. Wherever you have constituency office, the workers you hire, it is the National Assembly Service commission that is supposed to take care of that.” However, Shehu clarified that the 114 per cent review had been postponed due to economic challenges, adding that the last time the review took place was in 2007 and that political office holders do not earn outrageous emoluments as speculated by Nigerians. “From 2008 till date, there had not been any single review. Last year, some individuals took the federal government to court. These were some activists concerned about the salaries of judicial officers. “In the court, the judge ruled that a judge should be paid about N10 million a month, that was the court ruling.
“We are Nigerians, we are not going to start talking about reviewing salaries of political office holders now because of the challenges that the government is facing.
“As a commission, we are going to do our work but we are not going to say we will do it now. We will do it when the climate is right and then we will take it forward to the stakeholders for them to decide on what to do.”
In spite of Shehu’s clarification, outrage heralded his justification of salary increment for NASS members and other political office holders.
Among those who spoke on the issue are the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA; Labour Party, LP, Rights and Niger-Delta Activist, Annkio Briggs; and former Member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Abdul Oroh.
It’s unjustifiable, unacceptable —NLC
President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said pay raise for public office holders was unacceptable and unjustifiable in a country where everybody was crying over the high cost of governance.
His words: “High cost of governance was one of the issues we raised at our June 5, 2023 meeting with government, to the extent that one of the sub-committees set up on that day was on the cost of governance.
”Unfortunately, the government has messed up the whole thing. We have been complaining about the jumbo pay and other unjustifiable allowances the Federal Executive Council, FEC, members are earning to no avail.
”We are talking about ministers, their several aides and hangers-on. The same thing is applicable to the members of the National Assembly whose salaries and allowances cannot be justified under any circumstances, let alone a struggling economy like ours.
“We have continued to question the reason politicians seek political positions in this country. Every of their action and inaction has continued to justify the argument that they seek political positions for self-aggrandizement.
READ THE FULL STORY IN VANGUARD
