THE Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recently stirred the hornets’ nest when it proposed an upward review of the salaries of political office holders in the country, arguing that the remuneration of these public functionaries is outdated and no longer a true compensation for their mounting responsibilities.
Hinting at the plan, the commission’s Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, who said the current salary of the President, which is pegged at N1.5m and ministers at less than N1m has remained unchanged since 2008, further claimed that the salary review would serve as a necessary disincentive to corruption in public offices.
But the proposal has irked individuals and interest groups, chiefly the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), political parties, particularly the opposition, pressure groups, religious and cultural associations, including the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), among others.
Sceptics hold that the proposed salary review is provocative, insensitive and ill-timed in light of the current economic realities that have pushed many Nigerians into multidimensional poverty. They further called on the Federal Government to suspend the plan as it tended to widen the gulf between the government and the governed.
Their reasons should be weighed. With mounting debt swallowing nearly half of government revenues, a 37.0 per cent inflation projection by 2026, devaluation of the Naira, soaring unemployment rates, persistent corruption, and rising insecurity, Nigeria’s economy is not currently in the best of shape.
Again, the reality is further worsened by the recent nurses and midwives warning strike over poor remuneration and welfare, the threat of another industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), protests by police pensioners and the growing discontent among civil servants nationwide over the Minimum Wage, an issue many consider far more urgent than any proposed increment in the salaries of political office holders.
Nevertheless, we do not entirely begrudge RMAFC for acting within the bounds of its jurisdiction as established by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to, among other things, determine the remuneration packages appropriate for political office holders, especially in the light of their contention that the move would suppress the temptation to plunder our commonwealth by those entrusted to guard the same.
Over the years, Nigeria has struggled with brazen corruption, and the biggest culprits are often some political office holders who dip their hands into the public treasury to loot with reckless abandon. Thus, it only appeals to our good conscience that with matching salaries, political office holders would have no reason to engage in malpractices as their legal emoluments should be enough to cater for them and their immediate dependents, barring extravagance.
However, we call on our political office holders, the president, vice president, governors, deputy governors, ministers, commissioners, special advisers and legislators, among others, to gauge public opinion and rescind their entreaties to RMAFC for now. It is time for them to reciprocate the sacrifices of the masses during the early months after the fuel subsidy removal.
Thus, we expect President Bola Tinubu, as a true democrat and the personification of a renewed hope, to further show empathy by addressing more pressing issues than increasing his own salary.
Over and beyond, political office holders were either elected or appointed, as the case may be, to serve and not to fatten their purses. Their earnest desires should be to better the lot of those they have promised to serve and not allow their personal interests to offend the sensitivities of those they serve. Otherwise, if their ambition is to earn fat salaries, they should seek a career outside governance or public service.
