Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Professor Kingsley Moghalu, has advised Nigerian politicians to cut their salaries and allowances by half.
According to the former presidential candidate, current economic realities demonstrate that the weight of luxurious lives by political office holders in the country is impacting the country, and only the public appear to be making sacrifices and enduring economic hardship.
According to him, the recent elimination of fuel subsidies has caused additional difficulty for the country’s population.
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As a result, he urged all political office holders, including President Bola Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and all others in the presidency, National Assembly, and other spheres of government, to set a good example and educe their salary and allowances by 50%.
Moghalu said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday: “The culture of governance is a very important issue that needs to be addressed, and the tone has to be set from the top – from the presidency down.” It must include the National Assembly because it receives significant funding and is meant to be independent of the executive.
“So, they themselves must come on board, examine themselves, and say: ‘Look, even if we have been making this mistake in the past, we cannot continue this way. We have to cut our salaries.’ I recommend a 50% cut for all political office holders and all national legislators. It would make people a little bit more sober. It would make them understand that we are in hard times.”
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Moghalu went on to say that the cost of governance in Nigeria is too high, with an emphasis on self-service rather than people service.
“So the culture of governance – all these excessive demonstrations of power and influence – is a very negative culture because it shows that government is not for service.
“It is for self-aggrandisement. It is for political power for its own sake, not for leadership and service,” he submitted.
The former presidential candidate also chastised Nigerian politicians for failing to replicate positive models of what they observe in affluent countries. He chastised the political class for impeding the country’s economic growth with their self-serving actions.
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“So, my comment is simply a reflection of the fact that the political class in Nigeria – more broadly – has prevented the economic progress of the country because of their own self-seeking and rent-seeking behaviour,” he said, adding that “This is the problem, not borrowing.”
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