No one in political office or a member of the judiciary in Nigeria receives a big salary, according to Mohammed Bello Shehu, Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
According to Naija News, the RMAFC is a department of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that is in charge of managing how much money belongs to the government and how it is distributed from the Federation Account.
The organization also makes sure that the system for allocating the country’s tax revenues is uniform and equitable.
The pay of the president, senate president, and other political office holders must be fixed and determined by the commission.
Speaking in an interview with The Sun, Shehu revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari does not earn more than N1.2 million a month, while the Senate President doesn’t take home more than N1 million.
On salary disparities in government-owned agencies, the RMAFC chairman disclosed that there are about 17 different salary categories.
He said: “There could be more. Disparity between a staff in CBN and in the ministry and various differences like that is not the responsibility of the Commission, but I can raise that as an issue which I have been doing and I feel that it is time for the stakeholders to take a look at this so that in such a disparity there can be some levels of harmonisation.
“If it is because of special skills the difference is not going to be that too wide which leaves a lot of room for corruption and other vices. And I have said also and I still stand by it that there should not be any public servant in Nigeria that will earn a salary more than the president of Nigeria.”
“Even after he served as a political appointee for four, five or eight years that he shouldn’t get a severance package that is like 50, 60 or 100 times more than that of the president. That is my opinion and I stand by it anytime, any day,” he added.
Speaking further, Shehu stated that there is no political office-holder or judicial officer in Nigeria that earns a jumbo salary.
He said: “I have said it in public that the salary of the president is not more than N1.2 million a month and nobody earns higher than that not even the Chief Justice of the Federation or the Senate President.
“The salary of a minister after removing taxes is slightly under N1 million a month. This was from 2018 to date and you know some people will like to bring this issue up on the salaries of other workers that are not political appointees but in reality between 2008 to date how many times have the salaries of workers been reviewed? Many times.
“In 2008 I believe the minimum wage was around N5,000 but what is it today? So, there has been a lot of changes and like I said the commission is not responsible for that.”
