RMAFC Boss Denies Proposing Increase In Salaries Of Political Office Holders By 114 Per Cent

By Babatunde Solanke

The Chairman,Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission(RMAFC), Muhammad Shehu, has denied media report that the commission has proposed 114 per cent increase in salaries of political office holders as not only untrue but also figment of imagination by the writer of the said report.

Shehu, however, said that it was the constitutional responsibility of RMAFC to determine and review the salaries of executive, legislative, and judicial officers.

RMAFC boss, who stated this during an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that their salaries were last reviewed in 2007, adding that “From 2008 to date, there has not been a single review,”

According to Shehu the commission would not contemplate the speculated increase now, considering the prevailing economic challenges faced by Nigerians.

“We are Nigerians; we are not going to start talking about reviewing the salaries of political office holders now because of the challenges that the government is facing.

“We will do it when the climate is right, and then we will take it forward to the stakeholders for them to decide on what to do. I want to disabuse the minds of Nigerians. It is not true that people are getting jumbo salaries.

“The monthly salary of Mr President is less than N1.5m; that of a minister is not even up to N1m,” Shehu added.

The chairman said that what people considered outrageous earnings by lawmakers were statutory office running costs, which should ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission.