ABUJA, Nigeria – Former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Dr Joe Abah, has faulted the planned salary review for political office holders, describing it as ill-timed and insensitive amid Nigeria’s economic challenges.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Dr Abah said while salary adjustments could be justified, the sequencing was wrong.
“Something could be the right thing to do, but if you do it in the wrong sequence, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way, you end up doing more harm than good,” he argued.
He criticised government spending patterns, pointing to the size of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet and the creation of multiple agencies.
“You cannot in good conscience announce an increase in the pay of political office holders when we already have about 50 ministers, countless assistants, special advisers, and technical aides,” he noted.
Abah also highlighted distortions in the public sector wage system and urged government to address them before raising salaries for politicians, especially after approving a ₦70,000 minimum wage.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) recently disclosed that it was considering a review of salaries for political office holders, arguing that current earnings were “inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated.”
But Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Joe Ajaero, described the move as insensitive and unjust, warning that it would “deepen inequality between civil servants and political leaders and further impoverish Nigerians.”
