• RMAFC tasks state houses of assembly to “hasten amendment of relevant laws”
• New pay rise effective 1st January 2023
Amidst the hardship currently being experienced in the country due to the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the 29th May 2023, and the subsequent protest by the organized labour led by Nigeria Labour Congress NLC and Trade Union Congress TUC, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), announced the approval of 114 per cent increase in the salaries of elected politicians, including the President Bola Tinubu, the vice president, Kashim Shettima, state governors, lawmakers as well as judicial and other public office holders.
RMAFC is saddled with the responsibility of determining the remuneration appropriate for political officeholders including the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holders of the offices as mentioned in Sections 84 and 124 of this Constitution.
The RMAFC Chairman, Muhammadu Shehu, represented by a federal commissioner, Rakiya Tanko-Ayuba, disclosed this at the presentation of reports of the reviewed remuneration package to Kebbi State governor, Dr Nasir Idris, on Tuesday in Birnin Kebbi.
The commission tasked the 36 states’ Houses of Assembly to hasten efforts on amendment of relevant laws to give room for upward review of remuneration packages for political, judicial and public officers.
Shehu said the implementation of the reviewed remuneration packages was effective from January 1, 2023, adding that the move was in accordance with the provision of paragraph 32(d) of part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution of the federal government (as amended).
He said the last remuneration review was conducted in 2007, noting that it culminated in the “certain political, public and judicial office holders (salaries and allowances, etc) (Amendment) Act, 2008”.
Shehu said, “It empowers the revenue mobilisation, allocation and fiscal commission to determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders, including the president, vice-president, governors, deputy governors, ministers, commissioners, special advisers, legislators and the holders of the offices mentioned in sections 84 and 124 of the constitution of the federal government.
“Sixteen years after the last review, it is imperative that the remuneration packages for the categories of the office holders mentioned in relevant sections of the 1999 constitution (as amended) should be reviewed.
“Pursuant to the above, your excellency may please recall that on Wednesday, 1st February 2023, the commission held a one-day zonal public hearing on the review of the remuneration package simultaneously in all the six (6) geo-political zones of the country. The aim of the exercise was to harvest inputs/ideas from a broad spectrum of stakeholders.”
He said the commission had objectively and subjectively reviewed the salary packages in the reports, adding that it adheres to the rules of equity and fairness, risk and responsibilities, national order of precedence among others.
“The subjective criteria reflected the various expressions by stakeholders through memoranda received, opinion expressed during the zonal public hearings and responses to questionnaires administered.
“The objectives of the criteria were obtained from analysis of macro-economic variables particularly the Consumer Price Index (CPI),” he noted.
The chairman added that the commission was also guided by some principles, including equity and fairness; risk and responsibilities; national order of precedence; motivation and tenure of office.
Shehu said that having considered the impact of the review on the economy, the remuneration of the political, public and judicial office holders in the country was adjusted “upward by 114%.”
The chairman explained that with respect to the judicial office holders, the commission considered the introduction of three new allowances.
He listed the allowances to include, “Professional Development Assistant: This is to allow for the provision of two law clerks to all judicial officers in the country.
“Long Service Allowance: This is to guarantee seniority/hierarchy between officers who have been on the bench for a minimum of five years and those that are appointed newly.
“Restricted or Forced Lifestyle: This is to take care of the nature of the lifestyle of judicial officers while in active service.”
It would be recall that President Tinubu had in his inaugural address as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces held at the Eagle’s Square on the 29th of May 2023, removed all subsidies attached to petroleum products, stating that such removal is final, as subsidies have been the main setback to the country’s economic growth, even as he maintained that, only the very few gains from the sustenance of subsidies in the petroleum sector of the economy.
But shortly after the announcement, the organized labour met and threatened to embark on strike action, if the new administration did not reverse its stand.
The stand of the organized labour prompted the federal government to meet with the leadership of the labour on June 5, 2023, where it was announced through a press statement, that the labour had reached a temporary agreement with the federal government to suspend its planned strike action pending the outcome of the negotiation between the organized labour team and the federal government team.
But on Wednesday, New National Star had reported in its front cover that a committee had been set up to consider the demands of the Federal Government, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and it was given an eight-week deadline to decide on the minimum wage.
The deadline will expire by early August 2023, as reported by the paper.
The Special Adviser to the President on Communications, Special Duties, and Strategy, Dele Alake, the President TUC Festus Osifo, and President of NLC Comrade Joe Ajaero disclosed that a Presidential Steering Committee to which several sub-committees would report on various aspects of the demands, has been created.
Ajaero said that there are long-term and short-term effects of subsidy removal and in those key areas, several sub-committees will be created to report on the various demands before the end of August.
He said “The purpose of the meeting today is actually to put together the framework, what we submitted as our demand, how they will be delivered and so we are looking at that framework, the government came with what they think will work, we also made some input. From this night, we are going to continue the work to have that framework together.
“This meeting is intended to give life to those agreements that were reached. We have set up committees in those key areas to work on them to ensure we wrap up in the next eight weeks.”
“We agreed that anything we are putting together we are going to conclude everything in eight weeks. Everything must be rolled out within that time, not something that we are going to leave endlessly.”