The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has filed a lawsuit against the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission over its plan to increase the salaries of top political and public office holders in the country.
The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1834/2025, was filed last week at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
SERAP is asking the court to declare the proposed salary hike for the President, vice-president, governors, their deputies, and lawmakers unlawful and inconsistent with the Nigerian Constitution and the RMAFC Act.
RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Bello, had on August 18 announced the commission’s proposal to raise the pay of political office holders, describing their current salaries as “paltry” and insisting that the review package was “fair, realistic, and sustainable.”
But SERAP, through its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare, Oluwakemi Oni, and Andrew Nwankwo, argued that such an increase would amount to a gross misuse of the commission’s constitutional mandate, especially at a time when over 133 million Nigerians are living in poverty and several states are struggling to pay workers’ salaries and pensions.
The group is seeking an order of injunction restraining RMAFC from implementing any upward review and another compelling the commission to instead reduce salaries and allowances of political office holders to reflect current economic realities.
According to SERAP, allowing the pay rise would “violate fundamental principles of equality and non-discrimination enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights obligations.”
The organisation further argued that reviewing salaries downward would be more consistent with the rule of law and in the public interest.
“The imminent pay rise for political and public office holders is a gross violation of the provisions of chapter 2 of the Constitution on Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy,” the suit reads in part. “RMAFC seems to act consistently to give advantage to political office holders over the interests of poor Nigerians.”
SERAP also recalled a June 4, 2021 judgment of Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which ordered RMAFC to review and fix lawmakers’ salaries and allowances downward in line with economic realities.
The organisation accused the commission of neglecting its statutory responsibility of advising governments on fiscal efficiency and prioritising instead the interests of political elites.
“The idea of fairness and representative democracy would mean little if salaries of political office holders are arbitrarily increased while millions of Nigerians continue to face worsening poverty and collapsing public services,” SERAP added.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.