It is unthinkable that any form of upward review of salaries for political office holders could be broached at all at a time like this. Such a move is not only shockingly precipitous, it is ill-timed and highly insensitive.
But that is precisely what the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) plans to do. The commission had unfolded the plan last week in Abuja to the effect that it would embark on a comprehensive review of salaries for the President, Vice-President, ministers, governors, lawmakers, and other political office holders.
The commission argued that the current pay structure, which was last reviewed in 2008, is now “paltry” and no longer reflect the responsibilities of the offices. According to the RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello Shehu, President Bola Tinubu currently earns N1.5 million monthly, while ministers receive less than N1 million, a development he described as a “joke” given Nigeria’s size and population.
Shehu tried to justify the upward reward, saying: “You are paying the President N1.5million a month. Everybody believes that it is a joke. You cannot pay a minister less than N1million 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 D-G 10 times more than you pay the President. That is just not right. Or you pay him (the head of an agency) 20 times higher than the Attorney-General of the Federation. That is absolutely not right.”
These are puerile arguments. Shehu’s submissions are mendacious and tendentious, to say the least. It is sheer mischief for the RMAFC boss to quote only the basic salaries of Mr President, the vice and ministers. He was being clever by half by leaving out their allowances and other perks of office.
It is common financial logic that the allowances and perks he cleverly left out are the real “flesh” of the “bone,” so to say. In other words, allowances(the “flesh”) normally jerk up the pay since they are not usually taxed, unlike the basic salary (the “bone”).
Fresh facts gleaned from RMAFC and released by a national daily have, however, revealed some details about the official earnings of Nigeria’s top political office holders,including the President, Vice-President, the governors and federal lawmakers.
The President is said to be currently earning a monthly basic salary of N1,405,882 and consolidated allowances of over N7.5 million, bringing his annual salary to N106,870,584.
In addition to the regular salary, the President is entitled to several allowances, including hardship allowance (50% of basic salary), consistency allowance (250% of basic), leave allowance, estacodes, duty tour, security, accommodation, utility, furniture (paid once every four years), staff, and vehicle maintenance.
The Vice President, in his own case, earns a slightly lower monthly package of N1,212,629, making an annual salary of N14,551,548. He also takes hardship, consistency, utility, domestic staff, vehicle, assistants, newspaper, and security allowances.
Each senator, according to an RMAFC’s official document, also receives a monthly salary and allowances of N1,063,860, consisting of the following: basic salary – N168,866.70; motor vehicle fueling and maintenance allowance – N126,650; personal assistant – N42,216.66; domestic staff – N126,650; entertainment – N50,660; utilities – N50,660; newspapers/periodicals – N25,330; wardrobe – N42,216.66; house maintenance – N8,443.33; and constituency allowance – N422,166.66.
Some allowances are said to be regular, while others are non-regular. Regular allowances are paid regularly with basic salary, while non-regular allowances are paid as and when due. For instance, furniture allowance — N6,079,200– and severance gratuity — N6,079,200 — are paid once in every tenure, and vehicle allowance —N8,105,600 — which is optional, is a loan that the beneficiary has to pay before leaving office. The Senate President’s earnings are, however, not available.
In the House of Representatives, the Speaker is said to earn an annual basic salary of about N2.48 million. With allowances, his total package comes to about N18.33 million annually.
Ordinary members of the National Assembly officially earn less than N1 million monthly in salaries. Senators, for instance, take home a basic salary of about N600,000 after statutory deductions. Allowances and running costs push the total compensation significantly higher.
Current estimates suggest senators receive about N21 million monthly in allowances, with their annual package averaging N12.77 million or more.
On paper, state governors are said to earn a basic monthly salary of ₦185,308, amounting to ₦2,223,705 annually. With allowances, including vehicle loans, medical, leave, accommodation, furniture, and travel, the total annual package for governors comes to about ₦11,540,896.
Deputy governors earn about ₦2,112,215 annually in basic salary, but allowances push their total package to about ₦10,772,296.
Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the political office holders even deserve an upward salary review, effecting the review at this time is akin to putting a right foot forward at the wrong time on a wrong turf. It smacks of sheer impudence to broach such an idea at a time the economy is in dire straits and misery is literally strutting the land.
The negative headwinds arising from this administration’s hard economic policies have foisted on the generality of Nigerians an unprecedented regime of hunger and poverty.
The twin-policies of the sudden withdrawal of fuel subsidies and liberalization of the foreign exchange policy have thrown up unprecedented inflationary trends spiraling the costs of living, including staple food items, transportation and medicals, plunging the people in deeper and deeper misery by the day.
Although, economists and the International Monetary Fund(IMF) hail the economic reforms as a necessary tortuous path we need to tread to prevent fiscal collapse, the resultant pains have been overwhelming because the reforms were not only sudden, there have been no concrete safety nets or bulwarks to effectively cushion the harsh effects on the larger population, most especially the very vulnerable segments.
Resultantly, going by the World Bank’s April, 2025 Spring Meetings report, the economic tailwind has pushed about 46% or approximately 107 million Nigerians into the poverty net. The report projects a rise in the country’s poverty rate, stating that nearly half the population lived below the international poverty line of $2.15 per day in 2024.
The report highlights that the wealth generated from Nigeria’s resources is not reaching ordinary citizens, stirring concerns about deepening inequality and the government’s perceived lack of vision for inclusive growth.
The apex global bank identifies soaring inflation and high unemployment as major drivers of poverty, eroding the purchasing power of the minimum wage. It says the poverty crisis is no longer a solely rural issue but has expanded into urban areas.
The report highlights the gap between the country’s growing Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and the lived experiences of its citizens, where economic gains are not trickling down to the people. The report elicited outrage across the population, including the civil society groups and critical segments of the population.
However, what looked like a comic relief to the gloom painted by the global apex bank came two weeks ago when the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, commended the Bola Tinubu administration for stabilizing the Nigerian economy.
Okonjo-Iweala, who visited the president at Aso Villa, said: “We think that the President and his team have worked hard to stabilize the economy, and you cannot really improve an economy unless it’s stable. So he has to be given the credit for the stability of the economy. So the reforms have been in the right direction.”
She stressed that the combination of economic stability, targeted growth policies, and robust safety nets would be critical to job creation and poverty reduction.
“What is needed next is growth. We now need to grow the economy, and we need to put in social safety nets so that people who are feeling the pinch of the reforms can also have some support to be able to weather the hardship. So that’s the next step.”
Be that as it may, it remains befuddling that four months after the World Bank’s damming verdict about the poverty level created by the Tinubu regime’s harsh reforms, RMAFC could come up with an audacious plan to raise the pay of political office holders.
It is a very insensitive and incautious move that drives home the glaring disconnect between the government and the people. Most of those in government are so insulated from the suffocating heat on the population as a result of the harsh economic policies that they are oblivious of the tetchy mood in town.
Expectedly, the plan set the vibrant social media on a buzz of anger and outright vitriols across the country. It is, in fact, an uproar of a sort. Few issues in recent history have elicited pervasive outbursts on social media the way the planned upward salary review has done.
The central labour union, professional associations, chambers of industry, the manufacturers, political parties and leaders, ethnic associations, among numerous others, were united in their virulent opposition to the mind-boggling plan. Most commentators regard the planned pay rise as inconsiderate, insensitive and ill-timed.
The influential Financial Times,in its July17,2024, had pilloried the Nigerian government for failing to palliate the vulnerable population against the pains unleashed by the harsh effects of the economic reforms.
The publication had also admonished that the political leaders who have been asking Nigerians to be patient must convince Nigerians they are in it together by also making sacrifices themselves.
It said: “The president must chart a course ahead and convince Nigerians they are in it together. For that to be remotely credible, the political class must make sacrifices. Out must go lavish pay rise for civil servants and flashy cars(not to mention jets) for government officials…”
Nothing evinces the ludicrous nature of the planned salary review than the opulent lifestyles and profligacy of many of our political office holders, especially our federal legislators and state governors.
The National Assembly members have, indeed, over time been a serious leech to the nation’s resources with their outlandish and flamboyant tastes. They remain insensitive in their appetite for luxury, even with the comatose economy.
The current 10th National Assembly, in defiance of the recommendation of the RMFAC in 2023, opted for luxury cars as “operational vehicles” for its 469 members. Despite the economic downturn the nation is grappling with, the lawmakers rejected cheaper Sedan saloon cars and instead chose expensive Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs),even though the cost is above the package prescribed for them and other public office holders by RMFAC.
This happens year in, year out. In 2015, for example, the federal lawmakers bought Peugeot 508 saloon cars for themselves and in 2020, they went for Toyota Camry cars. And in both instances, they exceeded the threshold recommended for them by RMFAC.
The governors are even probably worse. With the savings being raked in from the withdrawal of fuel subsidies, revenue has ballooned for the three tiers of government, federal, state and local governments, through their monthly allocations. They now consistently share allocations in trillions.
But there is virtually nothing to show on ground for the humongous revenues they now share, as the people continue to wallow in deeper misery. Nigerians, in acquiescing to the subsidy removal with equanimity, expected their leaders at all levels to show example by curbing their excesses.
However, most of them, especially the state governors, are still living large, dissipating resources into ostentation and outright profligacy. They are padding their payrolls and expanding bureaucracy by appointing a risible retinue of aides they ostensibly do not need. They still keep a fleet of luxury cars and cruise around town in unreasonably large entourage.
This malfeasance cuts across virtually all the strata of political leadership under the expensive brand of democracy we are running. Most of our public office holders, elected and appointed, revel in a mesh of profligate latitude and waste, quite insensitive to the plight of the larger population who live in abject misery.
That is why calls have been stringent that we need to imbibe fiscal discipline and cut the costs of governance as the necessary penance for our profligate indulgence as a nation.
Besides, it is preposterous and laughable that one of the planks upon which the RMAFC boss erects his argument for pay rise for political office holders is to prevent them from “being involved in some other things”!
How does he (RMAFC chairman) think they sustain their ostentatious lifestyles? Can life of sleaze end in public service, even now that corruption no longer slithers in fright under the table but rather struts openly? Why have elections become a ‘do or die’ affair? Why are political appointments sought after like gold?
Trying to end sleaze in public service is akin to an attempt to remove honey bees from their combs!
Raising the pay of these political office holders is not only undesirable and impolitic at this time, it amounts to over-pampering them. Most of them hardly rely on their salaries owing to the avalanche of freebies that bombard them from various quarters.
These austere times demand sobriety and sacrifice. So, rather than raise their pay, many of them, especially the top political leaders, ought to shed a substantial part of their official salaries as a sacrifice to the national cause till the economy comes out of the woods.