The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) over the proposed salary increase for political and public office holders in Nigeria, particularly the president, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers.<\/p>\n
RMAFC had last month disclosed the commission\u2019s proposal to increase the salaries for the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria, claiming that the salaries for these office holders are \u201cpaltry.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, yesterday, he confirmed that the commission has been dragged to court but no date has been fixed for the hearing.<\/p>\n
He stated that in the suit number FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1834\/2025 filed last week at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP is asking the court to determine \u201cwhether RMAFC\u2019s proposed salary hike for the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria is not unlawful, unconstitutional and inconsistent with the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
SERAP is also asking the court for \u201ca declaration that the proposed salary increase for the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria is unlawful, unconstitutional and inconsistent with the rule of law as it violates the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and RMAFC\u2019s Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn order of injunction restraining RMAFC, its agents and privies from taking any step to review upward the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn order directing RMAFC, its agents to review downward the salaries and allowances of the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria to reflect the economic realities in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the suit, SERAP argued that restraining the commission from arbitrarily increasing the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers would serve legitimate public interests.<\/p>\n
SERAP also argued that RMAFC\u2019s constitutional and statutory mandates do not imply the unrestrained powers to increase the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, \u201cReviewing downward the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers would be entirely consistent and compatible with the Nigerian Constitution, the country\u2019s international human rights obligations, and the current economic realities in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare, Oluwakemi Oni, and Andrew Nwankwo, suggests that the exercise of RMAFC\u2019s constitutional and statutory mandates clashes with Nigerians\u2019 fundamental rights, the public interests in upholding these rights ought to prevail.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe imminent pay rise for political office holders is a gross violation of the provisions of chapter 2 of the Nigerian Constitution relating to Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy, and the country\u2019s international human rights obligations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe combined provisions of chapter 2, and chapter 4 on fundamental rights particularly section 42 give meaning and substance to the socio-economic rights of Nigerians and their right to equality and non-discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RMAFC should properly discharge its constitutional and statutory mandates to \u2018monitor the accruals to and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account and \u2018advise the Federal and State Governments on fiscal efficiency and methods by which their revenue can be increased.<\/p>\n
“The imminent pay rise for political and public office holders in Nigeria particularly the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers is a gross misuse of the RMAFC\u2019s constitutional and statutory mandates,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n
The suit states that RMAFC has neither unrestrained constitutional and statutory mandates nor unbridled discretion to increase the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers.<\/p>\n
It was said that the commission has improperly and incorrectly exercised its constitutional and statutory mandates by increasing the salaries of political office holders.<\/p>\n
SERAP said that the commission cannot legitimately or justifiably increase the salaries of the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers at a time when over 133 million Nigerians are poor and several state governments are failing to pay salaries of workers and pensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cRMAFC seems to act consistently to give advantage to political office holders over the interests of poor Nigerians.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RMAFC, in the exercise of its constitutional and statutory mandates ought to balance the interests of the marginalised and vulnerable sectors of the population against the \u2018interests\u2019 of political office holders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RMAFC ought to prioritise cutting the excessive amounts yearly budgeted as allowances for political office holders and life pensions for former presidents, vice-presidents, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers.<\/p>\n
“The idea of representative democracy, fairness and equality and non-discrimination would mean little if the salaries of political office holders are arbitrarily increased while millions of poor Nigerians continue to pass through harrowing times and watch their standards of living plummet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe grim condition of many Nigerians is worsened by the deterioration of public services where access to pipe-borne water and affordable health-care remains a dream and the supply of electricity is epileptic and unreliable in an era in which globalisation has made such services ubiquitous and cheap.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe RMAFC Chairman Mohammed Bello on 18 August 2025 reportedly stated the commission\u2019s decision to propose a pay rise for the president, vice-president, governors and their deputies, and lawmakers in Nigeria on the seriously flawed ground that the salaries for these office-holders are \u2018paltry.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commission claimed that the \u2018review package\u2019 \u2018remain fair, realistic, and sustainable,\u2019 and \u2018align with the country`s current socio-economic realities.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to him, the allocation formula was last overhauled in 1992, saying that there had been several executive adjustments since 2002, but a full-scale overhaul had not been undertaken until now.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice Chuka Austine Obiozor of the Federal High Court Lagos ordered the RMAFC to review downward and fix the salaries, remuneration or allowances of members of the National Assembly to reflect the economic realities in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe judgment dated 4 June 2021 followed the consolidated suits brought by Mr Monday Ubani, Mr John Nwokwu, more than 1,500 concerned Nigerians, SERAP, BudgIT and Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE).<\/p>\n
“Under sections 154(1) and 156(3) and paragraph 31, Part I of the Third Schedule to the Nigerian Constitution, members of the Commission are appointed by the President subject to the confirmation of the Senate,\u201d the suit concluded.<\/p>\n
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The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) over the proposed salary increase for political and public office holders in Nigeria, particularly the president, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers. RMAFC had last month disclosed the commission\u2019s proposal to increase the salaries for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":347634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-347617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=347617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347649,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347617\/revisions\/347649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/347634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=347617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=347617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=347617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}