No Bloated Salaries For Public Officers, Says Osinbajo

The Vice-Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said that an APC-led Federal Government will check bloated salaries being illegally received by public officers.

He also said an APC-led Federal Government would cut the cost of governance and generate more revenue in face of the reduction in global oil prices.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said this during a youth-based programme titled “Conversations for Change,” in Lagos, on Saturday.

While responding to a question on how the APC plans to reduce the cost of governance, Osinbajo said the Federal Government was not adhering to the guidelines of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, which is tasked with the job of fixing salaries and allowances of public office holders.

He said, “Just to give an example, in 2013, what the National Assembly got was about ₦150bn. Ebonyi State which has close to three million people, also had about ₦151bn in that same year. So, 469 legislators get ₦150bn while a whole state gets ₦151bn. So, that will give you an idea of the absurdity of the kind of expenditure and the way this money was allocated.

“The commission fixes the salaries of public officers including legislators. The commission also issues regular memos determining what people should earn and that is what the law provides for. Unfortunately, what happens in some cases, especially, in the years gone by is that many of the recommendations of the commission were not followed, especially with respect to allowances.

“So we find a situation where legislators earn far in excess of what was recommended by the commission and there were several allowances and several kinds of income that they were earning which gave the impression that too much was being spent.

“The real issue is that we must follow the law and that is what exactly the APC will do. We will insist that the law is to be followed to the letter. That means the recommendations of the commission will be followed and once we follow the law, there will be no issue of bloated salaries for any public office holders.”

Osinbajo said an APC-led Federal Government would create jobs by offering tax incentives to employers of labour.

He said every policy in the APC manifesto had already been tied to job creation, the PUNCH reports.

He said the money Nigeria was losing to oil theft constituted the GDP of some countries. He, therefore, maintained that curbing corruption would also serve as a source of revenue creation.

He said, “The major problem this country has is corruption. A current minister spent $10bn to maintain a private jet and questions are not being asked. Every single day, 400,000 barrel of oil is stolen but Ghana produces 120,000 barrels of oil. So, about three or four times of what Ghana generates is what we lose.

“Our naira is on a free fall because our foreign reserve is steadily falling. Every aspect of our lives is affected by corruption. I’m not surprised that they cannot find money for social welfare programmes."