[EDITORIAL] Pay Scale Review: A Contentious Issue In Nigeria’s Economic Crisis
![[EDITORIAL] Pay Scale Review: A Contentious Issue In Nigeria’s Economic Crisis](https://osundefender.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Revenue-Mobilization-and-Fiscal-Commission-RMFAC.jpeg)
A contentious piece of news, depending on where you stand, is coming from the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC). We’re told that since the political establishment is also feeling the pinch and pain of the current economic crisis, they’re calling for an upward review of their pay structure.
Everybody in Nigeria needs an upward review of their take-home pay; the take-home pay in many cases has become problematic because you can’t even take it home. The country today faces an excruciating crisis of existence. The situation is dire, with school dropouts on the rise and many people trekking because they simply cannot afford transportation costs.
The pay of politicians has always been contentious across the world. Public service, by its very definition, connotes self-sacrifice for the common good. Nobody actually begs anyone to go into public service, and those who do often come out less well-off than they did when they entered.
Examples abound, such as when President-elect John F. Kennedy asked Robert McNamara, the CEO of Ford Motors, to accept a cabinet position as Defense Secretary. McNamara’s wife and immediate family were aghast because they knew McNamara would have to take a pay cut of not less than 80% of is then remuneration as CEO of Ford Mottors operation.
“Eventually, to the consternation of his wife, McNamara accepted the position of Defense Secretary and the pay cut of about eighty percent compared to what he was earning before as the CEO of Ford Motors.
This shows once again that there is an element of sacrifice and public service involved in the acceptance of public office. There are examples of this all over the world. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, because the country does not have enough jobs or opportunities for self-advancement, the very definition of public service and politics itself has become somewhat skewed, and this is putting it politely.
Public service and politics are now, apart from religion, the major routes of advancement and self-fulfillment. The cost-benefit analysis of keeping public office holders is skewed in terms of cost, not benefits. If not, Nigeria would not be the poverty capital of the world. The perquisites of power in Nigeria are far too high.
In the United States, for example, about one-third of members of Congress, i.e., the National Assembly, actually stay in their offices because they cannot afford the rents in Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. Obviously, this is out of the question in Nigeria, where our own pampered elite can afford to rent, buy, or whatever suitable or ostentatious accommodation.
It’s unfair for the RMFAC to be arguing as if public officers are impoverished; they are not. There’s no transparency in their total take-home pay. Any comparative analysis between what our legislators get and what’s obtainable in other countries shows that they are one of the best-remunerated legislators in the world.
Remuneration is not just about formal take-home pay; it’s about the attachments and added earnings. And for Nigerian legislators, these added earnings are humongous. There have been all manner of stories, difficult to verify, about what actually happens during the so-called oversight visits. There are whispers about the budget process itself, as to what is brought to the table before budgets are passed. These whispers exist because we don’t have a transparent process, and the Freedom of Information Act is observed in the breach.
“In addition, Nigeria also has its own peculiarity of a deformed federalism. If a review extends to the sub-nationals, how will it be implemented? The variation in purchasing power parity and cost of living between Lagos and Zamfara State is so wide that a one-cap-fits-all proposition will be ludicrous and absurd, and even unfair to the citizens of the poorest states. All of these things have to be factored in because it’s clear that the RMFAC is acting according to a script. This is one of the problems with a deformed federal setup, and it has to be looked at. Any adjustment in pay scale should reflect the living conditions in particular states, and not a uniform bill.
“What Nigeria needs today is not a focus on the standards of living of a pampered political establishment, but a clear pathway as to how to increase living standards, construct social benefits, social benefit nets, and generally work towards a five to seven-year plan to make “life more abundant’. Like it or not, whatever the statistics say, people are getting really slaughtered, and something must be done about it. There must be a sense of social justice, and this should reflect in trying to build a completely new kind of economy based on fairness, equity, and social justice. Emphasizing the needs of a pampered elite just goes to show you the very fundamental dysfunction in Nigeria’s political economy.”
