The President, Vice President, Senate President, Chief Justice of Nigeria, Governors, and others are expected to enjoy a pay rise.
This is coming after the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) revealed that it has concluded arrangements to start the process of the review of the remuneration.
The Chairman of RMAFC, Mohammed Bello Shehu revealed the development during a courtesy visit to the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal in his office in Abuja.
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), however, condemned the decision of the RMAFC noting that the N30, 000 minimum wage for civil servants is nowhere near the humongous amount politicians are receiving as salaries and allowances. 
According to NLC, civil servants in the national, state and local government areas also deserve salary review in line with prevailing economic challenges.
Bello Reveals Aim Of RMAFC
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.
Tambuwal in the statement released by the commission was quoted to have commended the readiness of the RMAFC to commence the process for the review of the remuneration exercise.
The Sokoto State Governor claimed that 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 understood to be 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 ₦7,801,640:00 p.a.; Ministers of State and members of Constitutional bodies ₦7,536,683 p.a.; Special Advisers including speech writers ₦7,091,493p.a.
The above only represents the annual basic salaries these officeholders take.
It does 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.
Don’t Instigate Crisis, Labour Warns RMAFC
The organized labour while reacting to the planned increment for select government officials warned the RMAFC against instigating a crisis that would be difficult to manage.
The organized labour noted that political officeholders are currently earning higher than every class of workers in the country.
The president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba in an interview with Daily Trust on Tuesday 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 percent alongside that of political office holders by the commission.
Wabba said, “Well, first and foremost, it is abnormal because they are already earning higher than any civil servant or workers in the country. And I can tell you that since 2009, there has not been a general review of salaries in the civil service.
“Let me share with you, since 2009, our judicial officials, including our revered judges, their salaries have been static since 2009 till date. It is even laughable. No country can prosper in such a situation.
“That is why at our last meeting two days ago, we had demanded that the issue of review of salaries, that is; wage increase, which is different from minimum wage, should take place.
“Nigerians should know that there is a difference between wage review and minimum wage. Minimum wage is just adjusting the minimum but wage review means wages because of challenges in the economy, the value of our currency, the issue of inflation and the issue of purchasing power of workers. These are factors that necessitate salary review.
“As I speak to you, most of the countries of the world, because of challenges in the economy and cost of living, have actually reviewed the salaries of their workers, which is different from minimum wage. I can give you that of Ghana and South Africa. They did that recently with a 15% salary increase.
“What Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission (RMFRC) is about to do is abnormal because we already have a situation where special advisers are collecting higher salaries than judges of our Court of Appeal. That’s why you will find recently that some advocates have gone to courts, seeking judges’ salaries review.
“Our judges are the least paid jurists in the world now because of the value of our currency. It is the same thing with our medical doctors and health workers. If you convert their salaries now using the current exchange rate, it is so ridiculous.
“I think they should be mindful of all of these so that they don’t instigate a problem that those who are earning higher will continue to earn higher while they do less. But workers that actually do the work including professionals like medical doctors and our judges will be collecting ridiculous pay.
“I, hereby, give the warning that they should not actually test the will of Nigerian workers. If they do that, then, definitely they have instigated a crisis they may not have to end it.”
Wabba called on Governors to account for how they spend over N500 million they receive every month as security votes.
The Labour leader added, “Secondly, those people whom the commission wants to increase their salaries control security votes. In most cases, those security votes are unaccounted for. Among the states who receive the least security votes get not less than N500 million every month. There are states that get about N1.3 billion as security votes every month.
“Those are monies you don’t budget for, and in most cases, they can’t account for them. Basically, we also know that the salaries of political officeholders are shrouded in secrecy. What you see on paper is different from what they earn, especially members of the National Assembly and those classes of people mentioned above.
“Can you even compare the wage of the highest paid professor who is not taking up to N500,000 in Nigeria with the political office holders earning N1 million and above? Where is the equity there? This is the reality! So, I repeat, they should not instigate a crisis that basically will be difficult to manage because they are currently earning higher than every class.”
The post President, VP, Senate President, Speaker, CJN, Governors, Others To Enjoy Pay Hike appeared first on Naija News.
