PHOTO FILE: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

The Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has stirred nationwide outrage after hinting at a review of salaries for political office holders, a move many Nigerians describe as insensitive amid biting economic hardship.

RMAFC Chairman Mohammed Shehu defended the plan, stressing that the current structure is outdated. “You cannot pay a minister less than N1million per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best,” he said, noting that agency heads now earn more than the President and Attorney-General.

But the response from political, religious and civic groups has been fierce. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) condemned the proposal as “disappointing, insensitive, and provocative.” Its spokesman, Prof. Tukur Baba, warned that “such action could inflame passions and precipitate social unrest in a country where inequalities are widening and the middle class has nearly been wiped out.”

Former NACCIMA President Otunba Dele Oye described the idea as ill-timed, while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) dismissed it as “tone-deaf.” According to ADC spokesman Bolaji Abdullahi, “The government has no moral right to demand sacrifice from Nigerians while making life easier for themselves.”

Religious leaders also faulted the plan. Elder Sunday Oibe of Northern CAN called it “wicked, cruel and selfish,” lamenting that “so many retirees have died because their entitlements have not been paid, yet politicians are ungrateful enough to even imagine such a cruel idea.”

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the proposal contradicts the government’s approval of a N70,000 minimum wage. PDP deputy youth leader Timothy Osadolor asked: “How can a man with a family survive on ₦70,000, while politicians pocket hundreds of millions in perks and still talk of salary increments?”

Similarly, Olufemi Oguntoyinbo of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) said leaders in failing economies should reduce their earnings, not raise them. “Only then do they earn the moral authority to urge citizens to make sacrifices,” he added.

Former APGA chairman Chief Chekwas Okorie issued a stronger warning: “We are sitting on a tinder box… a hungry man is an angry man.” The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) echoed this sentiment, describing the plan as a “shameless grab for more at the expense of Nigeria’s struggling majority.”

Despite Shehu’s defence, the pushback underscores growing public frustration with governance. For many Nigerians, the proposal symbolises widening inequality and the government’s detachment from the realities of everyday hardship.