The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the proposed plan to increase the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria.
The party maintained that ordinary citizens deserve a pay raise, not politicians.l, describing the move as showing excessive greed, insensitivity and moral bankruptcy.
The National Publicity Secretary of ADC, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement on Wednesday, said such a proposal shows how disconnected the government is from the realities citizens face daily.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) had reportedly suggested a review of salaries for the President, Vice-President, g/Governors, and other top political office holders.
But the ADC described the move as tone-deaf and an affront to the struggling Nigerians, who have been made to suffer due to reckless stealing and malfeasance of political leaders.
The party stated that politicians already enjoy bogus allowances and perks that far exceed what ordinary Nigerians can ever earn.
The party stressed that instead of focusing on politicians’ pay, the government should prioritize improving workers’ wages and welfare.
The ADC also contends that the government ought to focus more on enhancing the quality of life for all citizens, rather than increasing the salaries of the president, governors, and other officials who already lead lavish lives.
The party also maintained that while leaders continue to make life easier for themselves, they have no moral authority to demand sacrifice from the populace.
It emphasized that while ordinary Nigerians suffer, leaders cannot be protected from the nation’s economic difficulties.
Speaking in the same breath, a Chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP), Chief Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, flatly rejected the salary increase for political office holders, saying such move is insensitive to the current plights of Nigerians due to the present economic challenges.
Ajadi said many Nigerians are groaning under unprecedented hardship due to the harsh economy, saying what is expected of the political office holders is to make sacrifices.
It could be recalled that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has hinted at plans to review the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria, describing current earnings as inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated in the face of rising responsibilities and economic challenges.
At a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, RMAFC Chairman,Mohammed Shehu, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu presently earns N1.5m monthly, while ministers receive less than N1m, figures that have remained unchanged since 2008.
According to Shehu, “You are paying the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria N1.5m a month, with a population of over 200 million people. Everybody believes that it is a joke.
“You cannot pay a minister less than N1m per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best without necessarily being involved in some other things.
You pay either a CBN governor or the DG ten times more than you pay the President. That is just not right. Or you pay him [the head of an agency] twenty times higher than the Attorney-General of the Federation. That is absolutely not right”.
However, Ajadi in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday, said at a time when reforms demand sacrifice, this proposal smacks of greed, tone-deafness and moral bankruptcy.
Ajadi said a progressive government in moments of economic crisis like Nigeria is currently going through will reduce the cost of governance rather than inflate it.
According to him, it is insensitive to increase political office holders’ salaries while workers have been struggling for a living wage without an appropriate response from the governments.
“The proposed increase in salaries of the President, Vice and other political office holders at this time of economic hardship will amount to insensitivity to the plights of ordinary Nigerians
“The current Workers’ minimum wages is not enough to provide the means of livelihood for any worker. The inflation is biting harder on Nigerians.
Contrary to the poor conditions of Nigerians, political office holders are flashing their riches, and displaying their wealth openly with utter disregard to the conditions of ordinary citizens.
To now increase the salaries of these political office holders will not augur well for our country.
“In countries where the economy is bad, what obtais is for the political office holders to reduce their earnings as a sacrifice.
It is with this that they will have the moral right to preach to ordinary citizens to make sacrifices.
“In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet reduced their pay by 20% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“During the 2008 financial crisis, Ireland slashed ministerial and parliamentary salaries by as much as 30%.
“In the midst of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, ministers and the Members of Parliament took salary cuts in solidarity with citizens.
“True leaders tight their belts first before asking citizens to bear the burden of reform.
For Nigeria’s political class to even consider “jumbo salaries” at a time of rising inflation, subsidy removal, unemployment and worsening poverty is unconscionable.
“RMAFC must immediately drop this self-serving scheme.What the nation requires today is fiscal discipline, leadership by sacrifice, not political overlords fattening themselves while citizens starve”.
