President, VP, Senate President, Speaker, CJN, Governors, others to enjoy pay hike

The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission says it has concluded arrangements to start the process of the review of the remuneration of political and public office holders as well as judicial officers in the country.

A statement from RMAFC quoted the chairman of the commission, Mohammed Bello Shehu, as having said this during a courtesy visit to the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, in his office in Abuja.

But the Nigeria Labour Congress and some experts said RMAFC’s statement was provocative considering that the N30, 000 minimum wage for civil servants is nothing compared to the humongous amount politicians are receiving as salaries and allowances.

According to Daily Trust, those to benefit from the lagesse include the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, legislators and other political office holders.

They said it is the civil servants at the national, state and local government areas that deserve salary review in line with prevailing economic challenges.

Bello noted that the functions of RMAFC in paragraph 32(D) of part 1 to the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, empower the commission to determine the remuneration appropriate to political, public and judicial office holders in the country.

He said the last time the review was carried out was in 2008, which makes it long overdue for a review.

The statement quoted the chairman of the NGF, Tambuwal, as commending the readiness of the RMAFC to commence the process for the review of the remuneration exercise.

The governor said the salaries of judges in the country were one of the least in public service.

He congratulated Shehu on his new appointment as RMAFC chairman.

Tambuwal noted that the commission is one of the constitutional bodies in the country that has been underfunded over the years, thereby making it difficult for it to function properly in monitoring all the revenue accruals into and from the federation account.

He noted that the commission should rather be funded on a first-line charge to enable it to go into digital monitoring and tracking of all accruable revenues into the federation account, thereby increasing revenues for sharing among the three tiers of government.

At present, salaries of some political and public office holders are as follows: The President N14,058,820 per annum (p.a.); the Vice President N12,126,290p.a.; Ministers, SGF, HoS, Chairmen of Constitutional bodies N7,801,640:00 p.a.; Ministers of State and members of Constitutional bodies N7,536,683 p.a.; Special Advisers including speech writers N7,091,493p.a.

The above only represents the annual basic salaries these officeholders take.

It did not include their entitled allowances like accommodation, furniture, duty tour allowance, estacode, medicals, severance gratuity, leave and motor vehicle loan and what goes to their domestic staff among others.

Responding to the planned increment for select government officials, the organised labour, on Tuesday, warned the RMFRC against instigating a crisis that would be difficult to manage, saying political officeholders are currently earning higher than every class of workers in the country.

The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba, said the only category of people who should enjoy an upward review of salaries are workers, not political functionaries.

According to the labour leader, 2009 was the last time salaries of judges, medical doctors, health workers and university workers were reviewed with more than 100 per cent alongside that of political office holders by the commission.