The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has given President Bola Tinubu a seven-day ultimatum to block what it described as the “unlawful and arbitrary” salary increase for political and public office holders recently proposed by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
SERAP, in a letter dated August 23, 2025, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, urged Tinubu to immediately direct RMAFC to suspend the planned pay hike for the President, Vice President, governors, their deputies, and federal and state lawmakers.
The group insisted that approving a pay rise for politicians at a time when over 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty and several state governments struggle to pay salaries and pensions amounts to “a gross misuse of public trust.”
“Suspending the imminent pay rise for political office holders would serve legitimate public interests. When the exercise of RMAFC’s statutory mandates clashes with Nigerians’ fundamental rights, the public interest must prevail,” the letter partly read.
SERAP also asked Tinubu to instruct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to ensure compliance with a subsisting judgment by Justice Chuka Austine Obiozor of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which ordered RMAFC to review downward the salaries and allowances of National Assembly members in line with current economic realities.
The organisation warned that failure by the President to act within the seven-day deadline would leave it with no choice but to seek judicial intervention to compel the government and RMAFC to comply.
“The RMAFC has neither unrestrained constitutional powers nor unbridled discretion to increase the salaries of the President, Vice President, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers,” SERAP argued, stressing that the decision contradicts the court ruling delivered on June 4, 2021, in a suit filed by SERAP alongside BudgIT, Enough is Enough Nigeria, Monday Ubani, John Nwokwu and over 1,500 concerned Nigerians.
The civil rights group expressed dismay that instead of reducing the earnings of public officials in line with worsening economic conditions, the commission was “arbitrarily increasing salaries on the flawed ground that the current wages are paltry.”
RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello, had on August 18, 2025, reportedly justified the planned increment, claiming that salaries of top political office holders were too meagre compared to their responsibilities.
SERAP, however, maintained that such justification was untenable in a country battling poverty, high unemployment, and revenue leakages.
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