IN yet another defiance of public sentiment, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is pressing ahead with plans to increase the salaries of federal legislators. This is an astonishing proposition in a country where lawmakers have long been pampered, despite the yawning disequilibrium between their remuneration and performance.
There is simply no moral or economic justification for increasing the salaries of Nigerian lawmakers at this time.
The Chairman of the RMAFC, Mohammed Shehu, told the Nigerian Guild of Editors that the review of salaries and allowances for executive and legislative office holders had reached an advanced stage. He added that the review for judicial office holders had been concluded.
Shehu argued that Nigeria’s political class, including federal lawmakers, are among the least paid in the world and that their remuneration has not been reviewed for some time. The commission, he said, last reviewed it in 2023.
Perhaps the argument is partly dictated by the N70,000 national minimum wage introduced in 2025. But it is a simplistic argument.
