‘Wrong timing’ – Ex-Bureau of Public Enterprises DG on proposed pay rise for politicians

A former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Joe Abah, has slammed the proposed upward review of salaries for political office holders, describing the move as ill-timed and poorly conceived.

Abah stated this on Monday while responding to questions during an interview on ‘Sunrise Daily’, a programme on Channels Television.

“It is often not enough that something is the right thing to do. Something could be the right thing to do, but if you do it in the wrong sequence, at the wrong time, and in the wrong way, you end up doing more harm than good. My thinking is that the timing is not right, the optics are not right,” he said on Monday.

He criticised government spending, citing the size of President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet and the proliferation of agencies and commissions.

“The government has not demonstrated that it takes fiscal prudence seriously. We have the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history. Every day, new agencies and commissions are created. I have always argued that for every new agency we create, we should close at least 10.

“You cannot in good conscience announce an increase in the pay of political office holders when we already have about 50 ministers, countless assistants, special advisers, and technical aides. Nobody even knows the full numbers. It does not create the impression that this is the right thing to do at this time,” he said.

The ex-BPE boss pointed to what he described as “great distortion” in the public sector pay system, where officials at the same level sometimes earned different amounts.

He said such issues required “urgent correction” before salary increases could be considered, especially given the approved ₦70,000 minimum wage.