Obi described the move as a shameless grab for more at the expense of Nigeria’s struggling majority.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Labour Party (LP) 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has slammed the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), for advocating pay rise for politicians in the country.
He was reacting to RMAFC’s plan to review the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria.
The commission on Tuesday described current earnings of political office holders as inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated in the face of rising responsibilities and economic challenges.
Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, said, “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.”
He added, “You cannot pay a minister less than N1m per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best without necessarily being involved in some 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.”
Reacting to the development in a post shared on his X handle on Thursday, Obi questioned the necessity and timing of the proposal.
The former Anambra State governor added that such thinking in the face of faster-eroding living standards of the people not only portrays the insensitivity of leaders but also exposes their greed.
According to him, the move is a shameless grab for more at the expense of Nigeria’s struggling majority.
He, therefore, urged the RMAFC to prioritise the welfare of Nigerians, especially those in the public service, who have been neglected for far too long.
Obi wrote, “The RMAFC’s reckless haste in prioritising the greed of politicians over the desperate needs of the masses is not only provocative but scandalous.
“The proposed over 100% salary increase for political office holders is totally unjustifiable considering the economic realities facing our country.
“We believe that political office is a service to the nation, and not a means to accumulate wealth.
“It is very disturbing that the RMAFC is prioritising the welfare of political office holders over that of security personnel, particularly police officers who are grossly underpaid and overworked.”
