The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) says some public servants earn salaries bigger than that of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The salary of Mr President is not up to N1,300,000 a month…the allowances of the President are factored into that salary. In 2008, that was considered a big money but now, there are people in the private sector and public sector that earn twice, three times, four times,” RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
Shehu precisely said some staff of government agencies like the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), amongst others, earn emoluments bigger than the President’s. The NPA is one of the agencies with high revenues. It generated over N172bn in the first half of 2022.
According to him, Nigeria has about 17 different salary categories across several agencies. He, therefore, proposed the regularisation of the salary schemes for the civil service, saying no public official should earn more than the President.
“What I was saying that time is that no public servant should earn salaries bigger than Mr President’s but we do have public servants that earn bigger than Mr President: NCC, NIMASA, NPA, Central Bank,” he said.
The RMAFC chair also said some government officials get as high as N500m as their severance package but the President gets N10m after his tenure.
Furthermore, he noted that his commission will soon implement the upward review of the salaries of judicial officers and subsequently review salaries of public officers to reflect current socio-economic realities.
Asked whether the government can afford to increase salaries at the moment, he bemoaned a situation where some government agencies spend all the monies they generate, saying there are up to N7 trillion unremitted revenues in some agencies. He, therefore, tasked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to go after the culpable agencies.
Shehu also urged the Federal Government to speedily implement the Steve Oronsaye report submitted over a decade ago in order to merge government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) performing similar functions as a way to cut governance cost.