No Nigerian lawmaker or minister is paid more than N1 million each month – RMAFC Chairman

No Nigerian legislator or minister makes more than one million naira per month, according to Mohammed Bello Shehu, Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

He remarked this while refuting the idea that the RMAFC’s review of compensation is being undertaken to raise the pay of lawmakers and those holding political position.

He said:

“There are lots of lapses there (remuneration), so this is what has informed us to do this exercise now, it is not true that we are just trying to like put a bonus or a jumbo package to president, governors and legislators, and contrary to what a lot of people perceive and believe to be so that legislators and senators have jumbo salaries, no; there is no legislator, no senator, no minister that earns over a million naira a month in Nigeria”

The RMAFC Chairman stated that President Muhammadu Buhari authorized the remuneration review effort in response to a recent significant agitation for review of judges’ salaries, adding that they are addressing more than only judges’ salaries at this time.

“The president set up a committee and the committee made recommendations and he ordered the Attorney General of the federation to liaise with the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission to look into this and come up with something. So we are not only looking at that, we feel it is time to review the entire package, review does not mean we are going to increase it or we are going to reduce it or it’s going to remain same, we are going to look at all other issues and these things will be done scientifically, so it’s not anything that is new to the commission,” Shehu added

A few weeks ago, the RMAFC announced that it had reached an agreement to begin the process of carrying out the review of the compensation for those holding political, public, and judicial position in the nation.

When making the announcement, Shehu had noted that the RMAFC was given authority to determine the compensation appropriate for those holding political, public, and judicial offices in the nation by paragraph 32(D) of part 1 of the third schedule of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s 1999 constitution as amended. Shehu also noted that the last time the review was conducted was in 2008, making it even past due for a review.