Yemi Obafemi
Hamzat Lawal Faults Plan to Review Salaries of Political Office HoldersFounder of Follow The Money, Hamzat Lawal, has criticised the plan by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to review the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria, including that of President Bola Tinubu.
Lawal, while speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, warned that the move could make the Tinubu administration unpopular and contradict the President’s call for sacrifice.
“I think this is even a setup for Mr. President, because why would you want to make a decision that would make the leadership of the country so unpopular?” he said.
Quoting Tinubu’s earlier message to Nigerians, Lawal stressed that leaders should also make sacrifices instead of placing the burden solely on citizens.
“The commission just focused on their salaries. Let’s talk about their allowances, let’s talk about their estacode when they travel for foreign trips. Some of them even ride in armoured cars. So, I think it’s insensitive and political suicide if, for any reason, Mr. President , after this commission puts together their report and all the consultation they hope to do, passes this into law,” he added.
Lawal further argued that though salary and allocation reviews had not been done in more than 33 years, the country’s current economic reality made such a move inappropriate.
“I understand that over 33 years, we have not really reviewed some of these allocations and the salary of the President, but this is not the time to do that; the country cannot afford it. If our politicians and political office holders think that they are not paid what they are due, they should resign and go and find a job that will pay them, or they can create their own companies and allocate salaries to themselves. Let them not put more burden than Nigerians are carrying,” he said.
Lawal accused the RMAFC of focusing on rent-seeking rather than its constitutional mandate of promoting prudent use of public funds.
He said: “Again, this is about rent-seeking; this is about making the President happy, rather than focusing on their constitutional responsibility. I don’t even know why they have not made a statement or reacted to the fact that we have not got the budget performance or expenditure.
“One of the roles of this commission [RMAFC] is to ensure that we utilise money prudently and advise government on how to ensure that we get value for money and the impact of investing in infrastructure, not only the Federal Government but also the state government.
“So, I think that they just have misplaced priorities and maybe they should just focus on some of their constitutional responsibilities.”
