Hunger in the Streets, Lights Out, Roads Dead, Insecurity High; yet Billions in the State House: Tinubu and Ministers Demand Fatter Pay While Nigeria Bleeds.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | For SaharaWeeklyNG.com

Nigeria stands at a crossroads: blackouts haunt our cities, bandits rule our highways, craters replace roads and hunger gnaws at daily life. Yet the very guardians meant to deliver relief (our President, ministers and top officials) are now eyeing SALARY HIKES, even as POVERTY DEEPENS.

Basic Salaries vs. True Take-Home Pay. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has reiterated that the President’s basic monthly salary is roughly ₦1.17 million, with ministers receiving about ₦1 million and agency heads like the CBN Governor earning up to 10 times more.

Let us go beyond the “BASIC SALARY” headlines. A recent breakdown highlights the substantive financial reality:

President (Tinubu):
Basic salary: ₦292,892/month
Consolidated allowances: ₦878,676/month
Estimated total: ₦1,171,568/month (≈₦14.06 million/year), EXCLUDING estacodes, duty tour, security, housing, travel, gratuity and more.

Ministers:
From the earlier RMAFC schedule (2008 framework still operative)
Basic salary: ₦168,867/month
Motor vehicle fuelling & maintenance (75%): ₦126,650/month
Personal assistant (25%): ₦42,217/month
Domestic staff (75%): ₦122,349/month
Entertainment (45%): ₦73,409/month
Utilities (30%): ₦48,939/month
Monitoring, newspapers and other allowances: small additional amounts
Estimated total: ≈₦628,057/month (basic + scheduled allowances).

These figures still don’t account for discretionary perks, like duty-tour allowances (₦35,000/day within Nigeria), estacodes (up to USD 4,000/day while abroad), security allowances, housing upkeep, travel entitlements and severance packages that cumulatively add tens of millions annually.

Context Is Everything and Context Is Miserable.
When RMAFC labels the President’s salary as only ₦1.17 million a month “A JOKE,” are they misjudging or insulting suffering Nigerians? That sum might look modest until you add the tang of FREE RESIDENCES, ARMORED CONVOYS, INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL TRIPS, ESTACODES and FOREIGN ALLOWANCES that the public foots the bill for.

Last year (2023), RMAFC quietly proposed a 114% salary hike for politicians and judges sparking public outrage. It failed. Now, in 2025 amidst rising cost of living and persistent power cuts, the same proposal reemerges with arrogance intact and empathy discarded.

What Scholars Teach Us.
Economist Amartya Sen teaches us that true development expands individual freedoms; FREEDOM from HUNGER, FEAR, ILLNESS and IGNORANCE. What kind of freedom is it when POVERTY CLAWS at our families while our leaders weigh pay hikes? Nelson Mandela urges that a nation should be judged not by how it treats the powerful, but how it cares for its weakest.

The widening divide (a President earning almost ₦1,2 million/month while citizens faint for electricity, about ₦1 miillion for ministers while the roads are impassable) is a moral indictment, not a policy question.

Rebalancing, Not Reckless Raises, Should Be the Priority.
RMAFC’s own admission frames the problem: “CBN governors and some DGs earn 10× more.”

A SYSTEM THAT SELLS incompetence AND CHEAP AND OVERPAY UNELECTED OFFICIALS IS BROKEN.

The remedy? Rebalance; not raise:

Harmonise pay across public service: Normalize compensation so unelected appointees do not overshadow elected leaders.

Cut unnecessary overheads: Expense a leaner government with strict “VALUE-FOR-MONEY” checks on convoys, delegations and discretionary spending.

Tie raises to delivery: No improvements in electricity availability, road rehabilitation, school functionality or crime rates? No pay rise.

Publish the Real Numbers (Transparency).

Citizens deserve to see everything. This month’s paycheck is one thing; what about:
HOUSING MAINTENANCE
SECURITY STAFFING
TRAVEL COSTS (domestic and international)
ESTACODES and DUTY-TOUR ENTITLEMENTS
GRATUITY/SEVERANCE PACKAGES

Publish every line item and let truth be the basis for accountability.

The Facts Nigerians Must Hold On To.
Tinubu’s income: ₦292,892 basic + ₦878,676 allowances = ₦1.17 million monthly (₦14 million/year), per RMAFC-referenced breakdowns.

Ministers: approximately ₦628,000 monthly, based on 2008 statutory schedule.

RMAFC noted pay disparity: CBN and DG salaries tower over the President’s.

2023 proposal for 114% hike died under public outrage; its revival is cynically timed.

What Accountability Looks Like (A Citizen’s Demand).

Moratorium on raises until key indicators improve (POWER SUPPLY, INFRASTRUCTURE, SECURITY)

Full compensation disclosure: PUBLISH ALL COMPONENTS OF TOP OFFICES’ COSTS.

Cap and reform: LOWER OUTLIER PAY RATHER THAN RAISE COLLECTIVE AVERAGE

Institutional safeguards: SUBJECT FUTURE REMUNERATION CHANGES to PUBLIC HEARINGS and CLEAR PERFORMANCE METRICS

As John Rawls argues, social and economic inequalities are justifiable only if they benefit the least advantaged. Our current scenario (elite enrichment amid mass suffering) is a reversal of that principle.

Our Fearless Demand.
Nigerians pay the price with taxes, suffering and resilience. To ask for higher pay now is to punish hardship. As Thomas Sankara famously declared, “He who feeds you, controls you.” We feed this system. We demand that governance be accountability, competence and service, not compensation without consequence.

So here’s the message: No increases until the lights shine. No raises until hunger fades. No scale-ups until our roads, schools and people are healed.

Politics: The Art of Many Faces, One Story.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com

When Mr. Olamilekan, a close friend also known as Baba Elizabeth asked me, “What is politics and do you understand how it works?” my mind did not run to the classroom definitions from textbooks. Instead, I remembered a true life story about Jacob, a Russian Jew who emigrated to Israel. His experience captured politics in its purest form; ONE STORY, THREE AUDIENCES, THREE MEANINGS and ONE ULTIMATE ADVANTAGE.

At Moscow airport, Jacob was questioned about carrying a statue of Lenin. To the Russian customs officer, he described LENIN as a NATIONAL HERO who laid the FOUNDATION of SOCIALISM; an answer that FLATTERED SOVIET IDEOLOGY. At Tel Aviv airport, facing Israeli officers, Jacob described LENIN as the very man who PERSECUTED JEWS, forcing him to flee; a completely opposite narrative that RESONATED with ISRAEL’S POLITICAL HISTORY. Finally, in his new Tel Aviv home, Jacob revealed the true meaning: the STATUE was NOTHING but FIVE KILOGRAMS of SOLID GOLD, smuggled past CUSTOMS as POLITICAL THEATER.

That, in essence, is POLITICS. It is the art of telling the same story in different ways, to different audiences for different benefits. Politics is not always about TRUTH, but about PERCEPTION. It is not about CONSISTENCY, but about ADAPTABILITY. And as Machiavelli once wrote in The Prince (1532): “A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.”

This story is more than a CLEVER ANECDOTE. It is a mirror reflecting the contradictions, manipulations and strategies that define political life across the world.

Defining Politics Beyond the Textbook.
Aristotle called politics “the master science” because it determines how societies are organized, governed and directed. Max Weber, the German sociologist, famously defined politics as “the striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.”

In reality, politics is not only about institutions, constitutions or elections; it is about narratives. The power of storytelling, framing and persuasion often outweighs the power of policies or ideologies. A politician who can bend one story to fit three audiences, just as Jacob did, can control hearts, minds and eventually, resources.

The Power of Narratives in Politics.
From ancient Rome to modern-day democracies, the ability to tell stories that adapt to circumstances has defined great political figures. Julius Caesar was not just a general but also a master of propaganda, writing Commentarii de Bello Gallico not for military records but to sway Roman citizens and the Senate in his favor.

In the United States, Abraham Lincoln could speak of freedom and unity in the North while subtly assuring border states that emancipation was gradual; a political balancing act that kept the Union together. Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Yes, we can,” was not policy; it was narrative. It spoke differently to minorities, liberals, youth and even moderate conservatives, yet carried one story of hope.

Politics, therefore, is never just about ideology. It is about packaging ideology to suit different ears. ~ George O. Sylvester

The Nigerian Example: One Nation, Many Stories.
In Nigeria, politics is practiced as a theater of narratives, where politicians tell different stories depending on whether they are in Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt or Enugu. A politician campaigning in the North may wrap his speeches with religious undertones, while in the South, the same politician may emphasize economic empowerment.

As Chinua Achebe warned in his classic The Trouble with Nigeria (1983): “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.”

Leadership failure often comes not from incompetence alone, but from the dangerous art of tailoring narratives for political survival rather than national progress. Politicians, like Jacob, often present themselves as patriots in Abuja, tribal champions in their villages and reformers in foreign conferences; all while smuggling their “SOLID GOLD” in the form of power and wealth.

Politics as DECEPTION or DIPLOMACY?
One may ask: is politics merely deception? Not entirely. Politics is also Diplomacy, the art of managing conflicting interests without descending into chaos. Yet the line between DIPLOMACY and DECEPTION is thin.

Philosopher Hannah Arendt, in her book Truth and Politics (1967), wrote: “No one has ever doubted that truth and politics are on rather bad terms with each other.”

This tension is why politicians must shape-shift. To survive, they must speak the language their audience wants to hear, even if it contradicts what they said yesterday, survival does not always mean progress. A politics built on deception may buy short-term gains but risks long-term collapse.

The Global Stage: Politics Without Borders.
The Jacob story also reflects geopolitics. Nations, like individuals, tell different stories to different audiences.

Russia, for instance, presents itself domestically as a protector of traditional values, while abroad it claims to be resisting Western imperialism.

China promotes itself in Africa as a partner for development, but in the West, it markets itself as an emerging superpower advocating multipolarity.

The United States sells democracy abroad while tolerating political polarization at home.

The art is the same: one statue, many stories, hidden gold beneath.

When Politics Becomes Dangerous.
The danger of politics lies in its ability to manipulate people into believing what suits the political class, not society. In Jacob’s story, the customs officers in Moscow and Tel Aviv were both deceived. They allowed the statue to pass because each believed the narrative they wanted to hear.

This mirrors how citizens can be deceived. A politician promises jobs to the unemployed, subsidies to the poor, tax cuts to the rich and reforms to the international community. In reality, he carries only “GOLD” for himself.

George Orwell, in Politics and the English Language (1946), warned: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

In Nigeria, promises of stable electricity, reduced corruption and food security have been recycled for decades. Yet power outages remain constant, corruption thrives and food insecurity deepens. The stories change, the gold remains hidden.

Politics and the Citizen: How Do We Respond?

If politics is storytelling, then citizens must become critical listeners. Blindly accepting political narratives without scrutiny is what allows politicians to smuggle their gold. Democracy thrives only when citizens interrogate leaders’ words with facts.

Nelson Mandela once said: “A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy.”

The media, civil society and the people must force leaders to reconcile their different stories into one consistent truth. Otherwise, politics will remain a circus where one man plays three characters while the audience applauds without realizing the trick.

Final Analysis: Politics as the Art of Many Faces.
Politics is not merely about governance, laws or elections. It is about narratives; crafted, bent and reshaped for survival and advantage. Like Jacob with his LENIN STATUE, politicians tell different stories to different audiences while concealing their real treasure.

The challenge of our time is to DEMAND AUTHENTICITY. Politics may always involve some degree of persuasion, but persuasion must not become deception. Nations collapse when politics becomes only about stories without substance. As Abraham Lincoln wisely declared: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Jacob fooled customs officers with his statue. Politicians may fool citizens with their narratives. In the end, truth has a way of emerging and when it does, history judges harshly.

Politics is, indeed, the art of many face; but citizens must insist that at least one of those faces is honest.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE OF CHINEDU NSOFOR (CEO, WORK WHILE IN SCHOOL GROUP)

Chinedu Nsofor is a dynamic and seasoned technocrat, a visionary social worker, an International Development Expert, and an accomplished programmes development and management expert with over 15 years of diverse professional experience. He is a trailblazer in youth empowerment, job creation, and social innovation, renowned for his creative problem-solving skills and unmatched ability to transform challenges into sustainable opportunities.

With a strong academic foundation—holding a B.Sc. in Social Work from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and an M.Sc. in Social Work (Industrial Social Welfare) from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso—he combines intellectual depth with practical expertise. His distinguished career reflects his unwavering commitment to tackling unemployment in Nigeria, a mission he has pursued through pioneering initiatives such as the Work While in School Programmes, the IMOFINTEC project for 5,000 youths, and several other impactful programmes across tertiary institutions, government bodies, and international organizations.

Recognized as a versatile project management expert, innovative business development strategist, creative writer, professional biographer, media consultant, and Wikipedian, Nsofor’s influence extends across social, economic, and academic spheres. His professional track record includes leadership roles in reputable organizations such as the Nigeria Association of Economists, Global Coalition for Sustainable Environment, Iwuanyanwu Foundation, the Imo State Government Committee on Science and Technology Roadmap (2020–2030), and Asia Pacific Sports International, where he has served as Nigeria’s Programmes Director.

Heiss is also currently the Country Director (Nigeria), RapidHeal International, a health intervention firm with its global headquarters in Malaysia. Beyond his rich portfolio, he is celebrated for his divine wisdom, inspirational leadership, and Midas touch in wealth and job creation, having directly empowered over 50,000 youths across Nigeria with life-transforming skills. Passionate, resourceful, and impact-driven, Chinedu Nsofor stands out as a nation-builder whose contributions continue to shape lives and institutions to the glory of God.