The Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Shehu Muhammed, says he does not think that the salaries of members of the National Assembly are outrageous.
Mohammed said this in an interview while reacting to the backlash the commission has received after its proposal for a 114% increase in the salaries of President Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, National Assembly members, governors, and others.
The Commission which is saddled with the responsibility of determining the numeration of public office holders, says the last time the basic salaries of political holders was reviewed upwardly was fifteen years ago. Just before the end of the Buhari administration, the commission had sent a bill to the President for the salary increase. The news of the proposed increment filtered in on Wednesday, June 21 with many Nigerians kicking against it. The commission in its defense said the salaries had not been increased but were only proposed to President Tinubu for approval.
Nigerians think that such a proposal should not come up when many are still dealing with economic hardship as a result of the removal of the fuel subsidy. Many argue that the salaries and allowances for politicians are too outrageous compared to the National minimum wage.
In an interview Session, Muhammed said he doesn’t believe that the salaries of National Assembly members are outrageous. In his words;
‘’I do not think the National Assembly and Senators earn an outrageous amount of money. I have said this publicly. The Salary of a Senator or member of the ouse House is about an N1m, basic salary, and allowances. However, there are what they call operating funds for running the office. If you are elected Senator representing Lagos Wesforf, for instance, you have to have a constituency office. You have to hire people to man that office. You have to have equipment; computers and others and it depends on the size of the constituency. In other societies, that has nothing to do with a senator. There is already a structure whereby the system takes care of all those things and provides them, it is still the cost of governance. But here, from what I understand the National Assembly did, they monetized this and they give the Senator that amount of money”
