A storm of criticism has erupted following the announcement by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to undertake a \u201ccomprehensive upward review\u201d of the remuneration for political office holders, with Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) describing the move as \u201cinsensitive, unjust, and inequitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement issued on Sunday, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, demanded the immediate suspension of the exercise, warning that it risked triggering a \u201ctsunami\u201d of public anger and further entrenching the \u201capartheid\u201d between the political class and ordinary Nigerians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rebuke comes at a time when millions of Nigerians are grappling with severe economic hardship, a situation the statement highlighted by referencing the country\u2019s \u201cmultidimensionally poor\u201d citizenry who \u201clive miserably poor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ajaero faulted the justifications offered by RMAFC Chairman, Mr. Mohammed Usman, describing his explanations as \u201clargely puerile\u201d and an insult to the collective intelligence of Nigerians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMaking public-office a sanctuary for wealth-making (for literally doing nothing) instead of service and sacrifice will raise the stakes and desperation for the quest for public office with its intended and unintended consequences including self-extinction,\u201d Ajaero cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The labour leader presented a stark contrast in the treatment of civil servants versus political office holders. He revealed that while the last wage review for civil servants was not more than 50 percent, that of political office holders done shortly after was \u201cin excess of 800 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further criticised the disparity in application of rules, noting that while civil servant wage reviews are \u201cdependent on resource availability,\u201d the same constraint \u201cdoes not operate\u201d for politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement also pointed out the incongruity of a uniform pay structure for political officials across all 36 states, which ensures a Councillor in fiscally strained Yobe State earns the same as one in oil-rich Rivers State, while civil servants in those same states operate on different salary scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Accordingly, the NLC President demanded the immediate public disclosure of all current political office holders’ earnings and the full transparency of the benchmark used for the proposed review, insisting that the RMAFC must indefinitely suspend the review process to avoid a potential tsunami of public backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RMAFC had previously argued that the review was necessary to reflect current economic realities and to attract qualified individuals to public service. However, critics argue that such a move, while the minimum wage remains stagnant and many states struggle to pay even the current salaries, is the height of insensitivity and risks widening the dangerous gulf between the governing and the governed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A storm of criticism has erupted following the announcement by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to undertake a \u201ccomprehensive upward review\u201d of the remuneration for political office holders, with Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) describing the move as \u201cinsensitive, unjust, and inequitable.\u201d In a statement issued on Sunday, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, demanded the immediate suspension of the exercise, warning that it risked triggering a \u201ctsunami\u201d of public anger and further entrenching the \u201capartheid\u201d between the political class and ordinary Nigerians. The rebuke comes at a time when millions of Nigerians are grappling with severe economic hardship, a situation the statement highlighted by referencing the country\u2019s \u201cmultidimensionally poor\u201d citizenry who \u201clive miserably poor.\u201d Ajaero faulted the justifications offered by RMAFC Chairman, Mr. Mohammed Usman, describing his explanations as \u201clargely puerile\u201d and an insult to the collective intelligence of Nigerians. \u201cMaking public-office a sanctuary for wealth-making (for literally doing nothing) instead of service and sacrifice will raise the stakes and desperation for the quest for public office with its intended and unintended consequences including self-extinction,\u201d Ajaero cautioned. The labour leader presented a stark contrast in the treatment of civil servants versus political office holders. He revealed that while the last wage review for civil servants was not more than 50 percent, that of political office holders done shortly after was \u201cin excess of 800 per cent.\u201d He further criticised the disparity in application of rules, noting that while civil servant wage reviews are \u201cdependent on resource availability,\u201d the same constraint \u201cdoes not operate\u201d for politicians. The statement also pointed out the incongruity of a uniform pay structure for political officials across all 36 states, which ensures a Councillor in fiscally strained Yobe State earns the same as one in oil-rich Rivers State, while civil servants in those same states operate on different salary scales. Accordingly, the NLC President demanded the immediate public disclosure of all current political office holders’ earnings and the full transparency of the benchmark used for the proposed review, insisting that the RMAFC must indefinitely suspend the review process to avoid a potential tsunami of public backlash. The RMAFC had previously argued that the review was necessary to reflect current economic realities and to attract qualified individuals to public service. However, critics argue that such a move, while the minimum wage remains stagnant and many states struggle to pay even the current salaries, is the height of insensitivity and risks widening the dangerous gulf between the governing and the governed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26613,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26611\/revisions\/26613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}