Claim: A Twitter user claims the annual salary of the Nigerian president is ₦30 million.
Documents from the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) show that the monthly salary of the Nigerian president is ₦1,171,568.20, totalling about ₦14,410,288.5 annually. Even if Mr Buhari’s earning as Minister of Petroleum is added, the sum is still not up to ₦30 million.
Full Text
On Wednesday April 20, 2022, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) held its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting where the price for nomination forms for various elective positions was announced. For the Presidency, the nomination form cost ₦70 million while the expression of interest form cost N30 million, totalling ₦100 million.
This high cost has continued to raise concerns and condemnations from Nigerians online and offline.
One of the critics on the popular microblogging social media platform, Twitter, Ayobami(@dondekojo) in his tweet claimed the nomination form of the party is more than the president’s three years salary, insinuating the president earns ₦30 million in a year.
Screenshot of the Twitter post.
This tweet which was shared on the same day the prices were announced had generated 3,215 likes and a total 1,822 retweets 24 hours later.
“The salary of the President is ₦30,000,000 annually. APC nomination form alone is more than 3 years salary for a 4-year tenure” the tweet read.
Under this tweet, Twitter users condemned the ruling party for the outrageous amount for its nomination form but a user, Style (@Olaitan_Ebby) in a bid to correct Ayobami said the figures given as the president’s salary is false.
“You goofed. The President’s salary is 14 million naira monthly and his vice is 12 miilion naira. So the President makes 168million million per annum thanks” the tweet read.
Another user FredMighty (@Donalldfrederic) in a bid to substantiate Ayobami’s claim tweeted: “Now who really goofed?”.
He supported his claim with a screenshot from a popular website, Wikipedia.
The conflicting figures and the need to put the right information out there prompted us to verify this.
Verification
According to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the agency guiding the remuneration of public office holders is the “certain political, public and judicial office holders (salaries and allowances, etc.) (Amendments) Act, 2008”.
According to information and documents obtained from the website of the RMAFC, the annual basic salary of the Nigerian President is ₦3,514,705. Addition of hardship and consistency allowance cost ₦1,757,350.50 and ₦8,786,762.50 respectively shot up the annual take home of the president to ₦14,058,820. Leave allowance is paid once annually and it costs ₦351,470.50; this makes the maximum annual earning of the President to be ₦14,410,288.5 according to RMAFC.
Other allowances include motor vehicle fueling and maintenance, special assistant, personal assistant, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities, security, newspapers etc to be enjoyed by the President are listed as TBP (to be provided).
DUBAWA reached out to the claimant to confirm if he was referring to the salary or salary with allowances but he failed to reply to messages.
Seeing the monthly take home of the president excluding allowances is N292,892.08, then his basic annual earning would be ₦3,514,705 which is far below the ₦30 million given by the claimant.
Inclusion of annual hardship, consistency and leave allowances which cost ₦1,757,350.50, ₦8,786,762.50 and ₦351,470.50 respectively will increase the annual earning of the President to ₦14,410,288.5 which is also far below @dondekojo’s ₦30 million claim.
Also, President Buhari serves as the Minister of Petroleum and according to the RMAFC, the monthly salary of a minister, including allowances, is ₦650,136.65. The annual basic salary of a Nigerian Minister is N2,026,400 while the allowances (excluding estacodes and duty tour allowance which is paid per night and furniture which is paid once in four years) cost the sum of ₦9,216,680. The allowances bring the total annual earning of the Minister of Petroleum to ₦11,243,080.
When this is added to the earning of Mr Buhari’s ₦14,410,288.5 presidential earnings, it amounts to ₦25,653,368.5 which is below the ₦30 million claim made on Twitter.
Conclusion
The claim that the Nigerian President earns ₦30 million annually is false. Information from the RMAFC, the agency responsible for determining the remuneration appropriate for political, public and judicial office holders, shows the president’s monthly earning is ₦1,171,568.20, totalling about ₦14,410,288.5 annually while that of a federal minister amounts to ₦11,243,080 annually. That means President Buhari couldn’t have earned more than ₦25,653,368.5 as salaries annually.
