Against the background of declining revenue to the Federation Account due to the crash in the price of crude oil in the international market, President Goodluck Jonathan last week directed a 30 percent pay cut for all political appointees in the Executive arm of government. The pay cut is seen as part of the bigger plan by the administration to free funds for other needs.
The order, which may come into effect from this month, will affect the basic salaries and allowances currently enjoyed by the President and the Vice President. Also to be affected are the salaries of Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, Directors-General and presidential aides.
We welcome this initiative, even though it came barely two weeks to a presidential election in which Jonathan is seeking another term in office. The implication is that the pay cut, if it eventually comes into effect, will largely be applicable to whoever emerges president in the presidential election coming up next Saturday, and his political appointees.
We, nevertheless, appreciate the reasoning behind the pay cut and advise that it be applicable to all political appointees in the country. We also salute the president for the initiative, even though it has been interpreted in some quarters as a political gimmick because of its timing. The order, if brought into effect, will help to reduce the high cost of governance in the country, especially the astronomical overhead costs on political office holders. For this measure to be meaningful, however, it must not be limited to the salaries alone. The allowances and other perks which form the bulk of the remuneration of the affected officials should also be slashed by the same percentage.
The plan for a pay cut has, however, become controversial as the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the agency responsible for the fixing of the remuneration of political office holders, has queried it.
A source at the commission acknowledged that the agency had received the president’s request for the pay slash, but stated that he lacks the power to unilaterally implement any pay cut without the approval of the commission.
The Commission is right on that score. Under item N, paragraph 32(d) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), RMAFC has the power to “determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders, including the President, Vice-President, Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, legislators” and other office holders mentioned in Sections 84 and 124 of the Constitution.
But, the expediency of the cut proposed by the president should guide RMAFC on the importance of cooperating with the president on this matter. The Commission should not throw spanners into the works of the planned pay cut which is in the public interest. The public interest will even be better served if the pay cut goes beyond the Federal Executive branch to the federal and state legislators, as well as the Executive branches in the states.
There is great concern that the nation’s economy may not be able to continue sustaining the current outrageous cost of governance, especially the expenditure on legislators’ remuneration, salaries and allowances. Under the existing package for political office holders, annual take home pay for the President is N14.058m, the Vice President’s is N12.126m, that of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF )is N7.801m while Ministers receive N7.6m. These figures are, however, infinitesimal when compared with the very high allowances and sundry perks of office that they receive. These allowances are a drain on the economy.
It will be recalled that in 2011, ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, alerted the nation to the fact that about 25 percent of government’s recurrent overhead was spent on the legislators. Three years on, nothing has shown that that figure has reduced. Instead, the cost may have increased.
Let the proposed pay cut be the much-awaited rude awakening Nigeria needs to cut costs at all levels of governance. The emoluments of political office holders should be brought in line with the present economic realities in the country. If this is not urgently done, we may be killing our democracy slowly and subtly.
Sadly, there is a wide gap between the earnings of political office holders and other public servants. A report by a coalition of Civil Society groups in 2010 revealed that it costs Nigerian taxpayers about N290 million annually to maintain each lawmaker at the National Assembly. The total monthly salary of each senator was alleged to amount to the salaries of forty-eight university professors put together, at the time. In a country where the per capita income is less than $1 per day, this is scandalous. RMAFC in 2010 said it had identified constituency allowance as one of the conduit pipes through which legislators draw heavy funds from the treasury. It is high time government began to spend more on areas that will have direct impact on the lives of the people and less on political office holders. RMAFC should, therefore, do whatever is necessary to effect the pay cut as directed by the president.
