RMAFC in consultation with CSOs, traditional rulers, other stakeholders
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Stakeholders are being consulted by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) in its review of the salary of public office holders which may be increased or reduced, depending on the general consensus of opinion.
RMAFC spokesman Nwachukwu Christian said Nigerians should disregard reports claiming the agency plans to increase the salaries of office holders in the political, civil service, and judicial arms of government.
“The process involves consultation. It is not what one person will do. We must consult critical stakeholders like civil society organisations [CSOs]. We must consult even traditional rulers,” he explained to The PUNCH.
“It will take us across the whole federation to gather input on it. At the end of the whole thing, what we gather will decide if the review will be upward or downward.
“We have not carried out the exercise. We are in the process, and this process must be carried out and completed and will give us the result whether it is going to be up or down.
“Nobody can come up now to say RMAFC has reviewed upward the salaries of political and judicial officers. That’s false. Until the process is concluded before we can decide on the review.
“In the course of the process, people will air their views on where the country is now. Nigerians must make their input because it is their money that will be used to pay these officeholders. So, we have to consider their inputs.”
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Determining appropriate remuneration
The RMAFC had earlier announced in a statement it would begin review of the remuneration for political, public and judicial office holders, per The PUNCH.
“Mohammed Shehu [RMAFC Chairman] pointed out that pursuant to the functions of RMAFC in paragraph 32(D) of part 1 to the third schedule of 1999 Constitution … empowers the Commission to determine the remuneration appropriate to political, public and judicial office holders in the country informing that the last time the review was carried out was 2008 which makes it even overdue for review,” the statement said.
Review of revenue allocation formula
Former RMAFC Chairman Elias Mbam announced in June 2021 the Commission had completed plans to review revenue allocation formula to ensure equitable distribution of Federation Account accruals to the three tiers of government.
He said the review would be concluded before the end of 2021.
But the RMAFC failed to meet the deadline and only ended up submitting its report to President Muhammadu Buhari in April 2022.
The report proposed federal government allocation at 45.17 per cent, states 29.79 per cent, and councils 21.04 per cent.