Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy
The Federal Government has indicated plans to increase the salaries of political office holders in the country.
Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, disclosed this to journalists in Abuja on Monday, describing the current pay for the President, ministers, and other public officials as “unrealistic, inadequate, and outdated.”
According to him, President Bola Tinubu currently earns N1.5m monthly, while ministers take home less than N1m — figures that have remained unchanged since 2008.
“You are paying the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria N1.5m a month, with a population of over 200 million people. Everybody believes that it is a joke.
“ You cannot pay a minister less than N1m per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best without being involved in other things. You pay either a CBN governor or the DG ten times more than you pay the President.
“That is just not right. Or you pay him [the head of an agency] twenty times higher than the Attorney-General of the Federation. That is absolutely not right,” Shehu said.
The RMAFC chairman also announced that the Commission had begun a long-overdue review of Nigeria’s vertical revenue allocation formula, which has remained unchanged since 1992.
At present, the Federal Government receives 52.68% of federally collected revenue, states 26.72%, and local governments 20.60%.
Another 4.18% is reserved for special funds, including 1% each for the Federal Capital Territory and ecological fund, 1.68% for the natural resources fund, and 0.5% for stabilisation.
Shehu said the review would reflect “emerging socio-economic realities” and ease the fiscal burden on state governments, making them less dependent on the centre.
He recalled that similar efforts under former presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari were stalled due to political resistance and concerns that the Federal Government would lose its dominant share
