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After several weeks of touted expectations and rumours, President Bola Tinubu finally reshuffled his ministerial cabinet. Although the reshuffle, according to opposition and reactions from the public, did not see much of an effect on critical positions held by appointed members, the president significantly scaled and replaced some ministers, merged some ministries and reassigned some appointed persons into another ministry.
Notably, the President renamed the Ministry of Nigeria Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development, scrapped the Ministry of Sports Development, and merged the Ministries of Tourism and Arts and Culture to become the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy.
Earlier at the appointment of ministers into the cabinet in 2023, Tinubu was accused of having constituted the largest ministerial cabinet since the return to democracy in 1999. This was despite the plea to the federal government to intensify efforts to reduce the cost of governance.
Within a year, several policies were announced to justify the government’s plea. This included the cutting down of escorts who accompany government officials to national or international events and the implementation of Oronsaye’s report that recommended the restructuring of several ministries.
Ripples Metric, however, discovered that despite the recent reshuffling, the Tinubu-led administration still has one of the highest ministerial cabinets and the adverse effect would clamp on how much of taxpayers money would be paid to these ministers as remuneration monthly; or for the remaining years in the president’s tenure, assuming they are retained.
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How much salaries the ministers would earn
Based on the remuneration approved by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), each minster should earn N650,136.65 monthly, translating to N7.8 million annually.
The recent reshuffle has brought the total number of ministers to 49. By calculation, this means N31.86 million monthly on remunerations of ministers and N382.28 million annually. This amount, however, excludes other allowances and benefits for each minister appointed. Each minister is also entitled to other allowances like accommodations, furniture estacodes, medical, severance gratuity, leave and motor vehicle loans which are paid based on application.
However, a former Minister for Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed in an interview last year that each minister earns N942,000 monthly after taxes have been removed.
If the calculation is used as a metric, it means that each minister would earn N11.3 million annually. By this, the president would be paying N553.896 million to offset the ministers’ salaries every year.
The calculations burden more on the Nigerian taxpayers who still grapple with the harsh reality of the economy since the president assumed office in May 2023 initiating policies that have pushed up the rates of inflation, and transportation among others and also increased the poverty line among Nigerians.
By: James Odunayo
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