Since Monday, the debate over the proposed pay raise for President Bola Tinubu and other political office-holders across the country, has thickened with several arguments.

While the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has been tongue-lashed over such an unsolicited proposal, as many tagged it, tempers are still rising over what the barrage of political office-holders really do to justify what they currently earn, which the favour-seeking RMAFC thinks is paltry.

“This is a case of drinking panadol for another person’s headache. Are our pot-bellied politicians complaining? They have enough or rather will always allocate more for themselves,” an angry civil servant, who was trying his luck at a betting shop over the Isesse holiday in Lagos, said.

Interjecting, another seemingly popular customer, who others hailed as Egbon Mutiu, said, “We are here trying to win jackpot, while those in the Senate, Alausa and even ordinary ward councillors at Oshodi Local Government are hitting jackpot every day. See their flashy cars, fine houses and fine ladies. They are chopping government money. Why they wan increase their pay again? He asked.

Many are asking the same question also. But the Mohammed Shehu-led, RMAFC has been defensive.

For many, the fact that the RMAFC hinged the decision for the proposed pay raise on the report that the president receives a paltry N18 million for his office in an entire year, as salary, which amounts to N1.5million per month, while his ministers receive less than N1 million per month or about N12 million per annum, highlights the commission’s inefficiency and eye-service, to say the least.

Even when inflation makes pay raise necessary, many observers think that the timing is wrong, especially at a time when countless Nigerians are passing through untold economic hardship and deprivations occasioned by the reform policies of the present administration.

According to Onyewuchi Akagbule, a senior university lecturer, the grounds on which the RMAFC is proposing the pay raise is wrong and unjustifiable.

“If the president truly receives a paltry N18 million for his office in an entire year, as salary, which amounts to N1.5million per month, what about teachers and doctors who impact the society more, but earn N70,000 minimum wage, which most states are struggling to pay. The RMAFC is self-seeking and inconsiderate of the poor masses who are weighed down by the burden of Tinubu’s reforms,” he said.

Onyewuchi, who described the above as giving more to those who already have, noted that the political office-holders cash out billions from many other sources and should rather be forced to return such funds to the country.

“We are aware of 10 percent given out to them for influencing the award of contracts, what about budget padding, what happens to recovered loots by the EFCC, these are unofficial sources.

“Officially, they collect travel allowances, constituency development funds, security votes and bloated pension packages. Please, our political office-holders are sucking our national treasury. They don’t need pay raise,” Akagbule noted.

Reviewing the development with professional eyes, Aliyu Akodi Sule, an auditor with an FMCG company, decried that it is not the small salary that is the issue, but the hidden perks that already inflate earnings of political office-holders and their collaborators in the government.

“My work has exposed me to the tricks of most expatriates. They earn the same salaries with their Nigerian colleagues, but the hidden perks, including security allowances, entertainment, travel and leave bonuses, house rent and children school fees, are where they make their millions every month and nobody hears these,” he disclosed.

The Okene, Kogi State-born financial expert, decried that the same model company’s use to retain expatriates is what the RMAFC is using to massage political office-holders in order to get their own too.

“If the RMAFC will be sincere enough to disclose the hidden perks our political office-holders are enjoying, there will be protest. My school mates, kinsmen and even colleagues who joined politics are far ahead of me in terms of investments. One even employed two Indians in the company he founded while in office. So, RMAFC said these guys receive meagre salaries, how come they are billionaires overnight,” Sule, said, while querying the rationale for the pay rise.

For Abidemi Onitiri, an investment banker, the RMAFC should rather propose pay cut for all political office-holders because it is due to the too much money in their pockets that political office-holders engage several office assistants, live luxurious lifestyle and fight-to-the-finish to retain their positions.

“In a South-South state, a certain governor has over 100 assistants, a commissioner in North-West has 20 assistants, who do nothing but to earn salaries every month, local government councillors also have. So, are they paying their large entourage from the meagre salaries the RMAFC is claiming they earn? Politicians will always have their way, they don’t need pay raise,” Onitiri said.

The banker, who worked for some politicians, while handling the wealth management portfolio unit in his bank, noted that the kind of money brought for investment by some politicians almost made him to abandon his well-paying job at a point.

“We know that the money is not from their salaries, the RMAFC also knows and sadly, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) usually look elsewhere. How can someone buy over a company within three years in the Senate, build universities within four years in the office? Of course, real estates in Abuja and Lagos are some of their least investments.

“With all these, someone, after receiving a package of dollar bills from a senator or after returning from an all-expense-paid summer holiday trip by a governor or a senator, wants to increase their already bloated salary,” Onitiri decried.

Many, who toed Onitiri’s line, suggested that the proposal should be for political offices and positions in the country to be part-time jobs, as obtainable in some countries abroad.

“The question to ask is, are members of the National Assembly doing anything even with the kingly lifestyle they live. The chambers are alwayss empty during plenary. They travel all over the world enjoying unjustly-acquired wealth at the expense of tax payers. Every now and then they declare recess for themselves and disappear. What kind of leaders is Nigeria having? Everything has gone from bad to worse, yet, human beings with conscience are proposing salary raise for same failed representatives and selfish politicians. Nigeria is truly in a dangerous time,” an angry Nigerian said.

For Chijioke Umelahi, an Abuja-based lawyer, the proposed salary increment is unconscionable and a show of insensitive to the realities of the time, especially the suffering in the land.

“From buying themselves SUVs worth over N200 million each, to changing furniture with millions, to being indifferent during the NLC fight over the new minimum wage and to demanding pay rise from behind, using the RMAFC, our political office-holders are very insensitive to the plights of the ordinary people.

“They will pretend that the proposal is an RMAFC thing, but they instigated it,” he said.

But most importantly, Umelahi, a former Abia lawmaker, decried that this is coming when the government is busy borrowing more, mortgaging the future of unborn Nigerians and still shouting reform.

“The government keeps saying there is no money, yet it keeps borrowing. Where is the subsidy money and all the things they promised Nigerians that the subsidy would fund when removed? They keep telling the masses to endure the pains of the reform, while they fly around for summer and medical tourism.

“The reality is that, for the reform to truly work, the government needs prudence, sincerity of purpose and sustained supervisions.

“You cannot borrow to fund pay raise for yourselves and expect the masses to keep quiet. They are talking already on social media and even if you don’t care, posterity will judge you some day,” Umelahi concluded.

Opposition parties condemn development

Tony Akeni, interim national publicity secretary, Labour Party, noted that it is a misplaced priority and insensitivity to increase salaries of political office-holders now, considering the harsh economic realities.

Akeni suggested that instead of proposed pay raise, the government should review the abysmal minimum wage of N70,000, as recently recommended by the American government.

He expressed disappointment that a foreign nation could demonstrate such empathy towards the suffering citizens, while the government, political office-holders and their collaborators, especially the RMAFC could not show such needed empathy on the people they claim to love and serve.

Meanwhile, as the debates thicken further, many observers fear that the RMAFC will go ahead with the proposed pay raise, as in the tradition of the present administration to undermine the people and their opinions, which do not count at the end of the day. (BusinessDay)