The minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige, yesterday revealed that the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) would review the allowances of political office holders.

Ngige, who disclosed this when members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) paid a courtesy visit to him in his office, also disclosed that the Presidential Committee on Salaries set up by President Muhammadu Buhari would review the wages of workers in the public service immediately the consequential adjustment of the new national minimum is addressed.

He said, “Revenue Mobilisation will also look at what is given to political office holders. What is a governor doing with hazard allowance? What hazard when the state is feeding him and his family? What is a governor doing with constituency allowance? The whole state is his constituency. These are what will be holistically reviewed.”

The labour minister noted that the government currently had about 1.3 million workers under its payroll, adding that in the 2020 budget of N10.3 trillion, the federal government had budgeted N3.8 trillion as personnel cost

Ngige described as unfair the practice where some workers in the public service earn higher than others, even when they are on the same grade or educational qualification.

He stated that the last holistic wage review took place in 2011 and that a new one was being planned, even as he explained that what is being done at the moment is increment of minimum wage of workers, not salary review.

Ngige said: “I don’t want labour to misinform workers. They should not be misinformed. Workers should know that this is consequential adjustment and not a holistic wage review After the consequential adjustment, the committee will now look at the wage structure of the public service.

“There are people who earn 300 per cent of what others earn and they have the same degree. We may have people in NNPC, FIRS, Customs and others with third class degree earning 300 per cent more than the man with first class degree in the ministry. The committee is in place to look at different wage structures. We have 12 wage structures in Nigeria. We will beam our searchlight on them.

“The 2020 budget of N10.3 trillion has N3.8 trillion as personnel cost without overhead. If you add running cost and other incidental costs, the total recurrent budget as presented to the National Assembly has taken 76 per cent. Where do we get the money to build roads, airport, rails, health centres, schools, etc.

“It is a matter of balancing; a budget that is 76 per cent recurrent and 24 per cent capital, for me, it is nothing to cheer about. In the 76 per cent, government has captured N200bn for consequential adjustment for the minimum wage and so on. These are all part of personnel. N160bn is for consequential adjustment of the minimum wage and not total package of workers’ salaries. Everybody has to make sacrifices. We must plug leakages.

“The ghost workers should go and we should know who the real workers are. As of today, we have 1.3 million persons in the federal civil service and maybe it will be more by the time we finish bringing everybody to IPPIS. The number of workers, 1.4 million or 1.5 million out of 200 million people, take 33 per cent of the budget, which has deficit. It is important we know this. It is up to us to use all the money to pay salaries and the economy will grind to a halt.” (LEADERSHIP)

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