The planned pay increase for public officials including President Bola Tinubu and National Assembly members was deemed undesirable and unreasonable by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
Recall that Muhammed Shehu, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), had declared that the pay of public servants, including judges and politicians, would increase by 114%.
In an interview with reporters on Sunday, Shehu stated that the review had been delayed because of financial difficulties, noting that President Tinubu receives a salary of less than N1.5 million while ministers make less than N1 million.
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However, NLC President Joe Ajaero said in a conversation with Vanguard on Sunday night that RMAFC’s decision to raise the pay of public servants in a country where everybody was crying over the high cost of governance.
According to the NLC President, politicians’ every move or omission has served to support the claim that they run for office in order to advance their own interests.
He said: “High cost of governance was one of the issues we raised at our June 5, 2023 meeting with government, to the extent that one of the sub-committees set up on that day was on the cost of governance.
“Unfortunately, the government has messed up the whole thing. We have been complaining about the jumbo pay and other unjustifiable allowances the Federal Executive Council, FEC, members are earning to no avail.
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“We are talking about ministers, their several aides and hangers-on. The same thing is applicable to the members of the National Assembly whose salaries and allowances cannot be justified under any circumstances, let alone a struggling economy like ours.
“We have continued to question the reason politicians seek political positions in this country. Every of their action and inaction has continued to justify the argument that they seek political positions for self-aggrandizement.
”For them, political office is not about service, it is not about the people of Nigeria and Nigeria. It is about them and nobody else. We have been asking for wage awards and other measures to cushion the effects of the petrol subsidy removal but the government has been paying deaf ears to our demands.
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”How can you justify a jumbo pay for ministers with their uncountable aides as well as members of the National Assembly and numerous aides and hangers-on? We cannot accept this. When it comes to the workers and other Nigerians, there is no money, the country is broke and the country cannot afford subsidies on petrol. It is unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
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