RMAFC: FG to review salaries of political office holders

Elias Mbam, chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), says a review of the remuneration of political and judiciary office holders has begun.

The RMAFC chairman disclosed this on Saturday at Amagu community in Ikwo LGA of Ebonyi, during the seventh ‘Ofala’ festival and 30th anniversary of the coronation of Ezeogo Aloh, Erima-Ogwudu III of Amagu kingdom.

Mbam was conferred with a chieftaincy title of ‘Aka Ekpuchi Onwa II’ by the traditional ruler on Saturday.

Speaking to journalists after the ceremony, the RMAFC chairman said by the end of the year, something concrete would be arrived at.

He, however, did not indicate if the review will reflect an increase or decrease.

Mbam added that a public hearing will soon be held for Nigerians to contribute to the process.

“One of the major responsibilities of our commission is to determine remunerations appropriate for political and judicial office holders,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“In doing that, the financial situation of the country, at any given time, is taken into consideration, including inflation and the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), among others.

“The commission, being conscious that a lot has happened since the last review, has commenced the process of another review to reflect the changing realities.

“We have progressed and we believe that before the end of 2021 something concrete will happen. It is a process and the process at the end determines what it will be. When we go through the process, if it comes out to be increase, we increase; if it is decrease, we do it.”

In October 2019, Chris Ngige, minister of labour, had disclosed that a presidential committee had been set up to review the salaries of political office holders — according to Ngige, the last time a holistic review of salaries was done was in 2011.

However, in February 2020, the labour minister had announced that the process had been suspended until issues relating to the new minimum wage are sorted out.