Adams Oshiomhole, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), representing Edo North in the 10th Nigerian Senate, has claimed in a recent interview with Channels TV, that the pay of public officers has not been adjusted since the year 1999.
The former national chairman of the APC and ex governor of Edo state, made this known when fielding questions on the government’s plans for palliatives following the removal of fuel subsidy.
While stressing that salary earners in Nigeria were underpaid, Oshiomhole said, “Do you know that the pay of public officers has not been adjusted since 1999 because it has to be done by the RAMFAC? And, which country in the world since you like to talk globally, in an environment such as ours where the key variables that determine costs of living; exchange rate, inflation, running double digits over the past 10-15 years? I don’t know when last Nigeria attained single-digit inflation.”
Claim: Nigerian public officers’ pay has not been adjusted since the year 1999
Verification
The CDD War Room investigated the claim to confirm its veracity, and here is what we found.
According to Paragraph 32(d) of Part 1 to the Third Schedule, and Sections 70, 84, 111, and 124 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is the federal executive body responsible for determining the appropriate remuneration for public officers, which include political, public, and judicial office holders.
We ran a check on the official website of the Commission and found a report which revealed that the remuneration packages for political office holders in the Executive and Legislature at the Federal, State and Local Government levels, as well as Judiciary at the Federal and State levels, were reviewed in 2000 and 2007.
“The 2000 Remuneration Report was passed into law and is known as the ’’Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office holders (Salaries and Allowances) Act, 2002” while the 2007 Remuneration Report which reviewed the remuneration package is called “Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc.) (Amendments) Act, 2008”. This is the extant Act in use for the remuneration of political office holders to date,” part of the report read.
This indicates that the pay of certain public officers has been adjusted multiple times since the return of democracy in 1999.
Verdict: FALSE
The claim made by Adams Oshiomhole about public officers’ pay not being adjusted since 1999 is false. The CDD War Room confirms that the federal executive body, RMFAC, responsible for determining public officers’ pay, has made multiple adjustments to the remuneration packages.
Leave a Reply