The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission is proposing pay hikes for the president, governors and the country’s lawmakers. This is at the same time that the value of the minimum wage continues to fall and many people are paid even less than this. Any fair society would see a massive reduction in pay for the rich and a decent minimum wage, with regular increases to compensate for inflation, for the rest of us.
The NLC and some trade unions, like SSANU, are already opposing the proposed pay hike. We all need to join the campaign with them and other civil society organisations. We also need to campaign for greater solidarity for the promised ASUU strike in the universities.
The top politicians are already amongst the highest paid in the world. In contrast, the minimum wage will buy far less than it would a few years ago. It is lower in Nigeria than all our neighbouring countries and many states have yet to fully introduce even the N70,000 minimum wage.
The politicians spend all their time looting and fail to implement any agreements that they sign with trade unions. Why should they be rewarded with even more fantastic salary increases? Almost every strike is due to their failure to implement previous agreements, in many cases going back years. Last month this included a national strike by nurses and strikes by doctors and other health workers in Benue, Edo and Cross River states.
The politicians do not even pay the police, army and other security forces properly or even arrange to pay them proper pensions. Towards the end of last month, a group of discharged soldiers accused the military authorities of failing to pay their outstanding entitlements. They were threatening to shut down key federal institutions if their demands were not met. Similarly, retired police protested in Abuja in July over the size of their pensions. Senior police officers recently resolved that they should be withdrawn from the current police pension scheme, describing it as unsuitable.
It is outrageous that anybody should even consider providing top politicians with a pay increase, especially when hunger is devastating the lives of so many of us. The wealth created by workers should be used to provide a decent minimum wage for all, including pensioners, and totally free health and education services, at least at the primary level. We need to demand robust action from all our trade unions to achieve these minimal demands.
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https://socialistlabour.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Socialist-Bulletin-57-September-2025.pdf
