Following the decision of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to review remuneration, public officers may soon enjoy salary increases.
The Chairman of the Commission, Mohammed Bello Shehu, made the disclosure when he paid a courtesy visit to the Chairman, of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in his office in Abuja.
Shehu stated that Paragraph 32(D) of Part 1 to the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended, empowers the Commission to determine the remuneration of political, public, and judicial officers.
He said the last time their remuneration review “was carried out was 2008, which makes it even overdue for review”.
In a chat with journalists, the RMAFC boss lamented what he described as the poor remuneration of public, political, and judicial officeholders, which has exposed them to corrupt tendencies.
Those whose remuneration will be affected and what they earn currently are: the President N14,058,820 per annum; the Vice President N12,126,290p.a.; Minister’s, SGF, HoS, Chairmen of Constitutional bodies N7,801,640:00 p.a.; Minister’s of State, and members of Constitutional bodies N7,536,683 p.a.; Special Advisers including speech writers N7,091,493p.a.
The annual basic salary and regular allowances of the Chief Justice of Nigeria are N6,727,944:99; the Justices of the Supreme Court/President, Court of Appeal is N10,899,284; The Senate President N8,694,848:75; Deputy Senate President N8,082,083:65; Senator N12,766,320:00; Speaker House of Representatives N4,954,220:00; Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives N4,574,068:50; Members, House of Representatives N9,529,038:06; State Governors N7,782,967:50 and Deputy Governors N7,392,752:50.
These figures are the annual basic salaries of these officeholders excluding other allowances.
The RMAFC has prepared about four revenue formulas. But, none of them was passed into law even after a lot of money had been spent on the review.
