SERAP Drags RMAFC to Court Over Proposed Salary Hike for Politicians

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, seeking to stop the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) from implementing its proposed salary increase for Nigeria’s top political and public office holders.

The suit, filed last week with number FHC/ABJ/CS/1834/2025, targets the planned pay rise for the President, Vice-President, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers.

SERAP argued that the proposal is unlawful, unconstitutional, and a betrayal of public trust, particularly at a time when millions of Nigerians are grappling with poverty.

“The 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,” SERAP said in court papers.

“RMAFC 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 workers and pensions.”

The rights group is asking the court to declare the proposed salary hike unconstitutional and to issue an injunction restraining RMAFC, its agents or privies from taking any steps toward the increase. It is also pressing for an order compelling the commission to review salaries downward in line with prevailing economic realities.

According to SERAP, RMAFC has “neither unrestrained constitutional and statutory mandates nor unbridled discretion to increase the salaries” of political leaders.

The group contended that the commission has instead “improperly and incorrectly exercised its constitutional and statutory mandates by increasing the salaries of political office holders,” adding that such action violates the principles of reasonableness, fairness and equality.

The lawsuit, filed by SERAP’s lawyers-Kolawole Oluwadare, Ms. Oluwakemi Oni, and Andrew Nwankwo, argued that protecting Nigerians’ rights should outweigh political elites’ privileges.

“When the exercise of RMAFC’s constitutional and statutory mandates clashes with Nigerians’ fundamental rights, the public interest in upholding these rights ought to prevail,” the filing reads.

RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello, had on 18th August 2025 defended the proposal, describing current salaries as “paltry” and claiming the new package would be “fair, realistic, and sustainable” while aligning with socio-economic realities.

He noted that Nigeria’s remuneration framework had not undergone a full overhaul since 1992, aside from “several executive adjustments” made since 2002.

But SERAP insisted the timing and justification were indefensible. “The idea of representative democracy, fairness and equality 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,” the organisation argued.

The group also pointed to a 2021 judgment by Justice Chuka Austine Obiozor of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which ordered RMAFC to review downward and fix lawmakers’ salaries to reflect Nigeria’s economic realities.

That ruling followed consolidated suits by concerned Nigerians and civic groups including SERAP, BudgIT, and Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE).

“No date has been fixed for the hearing of the new suit,” SERAP’s lawyers confirmed.