By Daniel Ewim and George Dosunmu
In the unassuming community of Plain City, Ohio, in the United States, the mayor earns a modest salary of $17,000 per year. This humble figure is neither a mistake nor unique to Plain City in Ohio. Across the United States, many local and community leaders serve in public office not as a full-time career, but as a civic responsibility part-time roles rooted in public trust. These positions are often held by individuals who maintain private employment, run businesses, or work in education or health care and other sectors, all while giving back to their communities through elected service.
This sharply contrasts with Nigeria, where politics has become a full-time, high-paying profession a path to personal enrichment and accumulating wealth through the state resources rather than public service. In Nigeria, senators, governors, and members of the House of Representatives, State House of Assembly, and local government chairmen and councilors enjoy lavish, full-time salaries and allowances that dwarf what their counterparts in developed countries earn, all while millions of Nigerians live in deep and abject poverty, and essential services remain in disrepair.
Politics as a Lifetime Career: The Nigerian Curse
In Nigeria, political office is treated as the ultimate career aspiration and an avenue to enrich themselves who hold political office. Politicians are entrenched in the system, with many having never worked outside of politics. Their legislative seats come with staggering compensation: over ₦13.5 million per month in “running costs” for senators, plus huge estacodes for travel abroad, security votes, wardrobe allowances, vehicle fleets, luxury housing, and pensions for life even after a single term.
This “full-time politician” model has encouraged an exploitative political class, and it is used as a mechanism to oppress the masses, detached from the suffering of ordinary Nigerians. Worse still, many Nigerian politicians are absentee lawmakers. Plenary sessions are often sparsely attended, motions are recycled, and bills stagnate for years, thus leading to an inappropriate act to implement bills that will improve the quality of life in Nigeria and for Nigerians. Meanwhile, full-time salaries keep flowing, and constituency projects—meant to deliver development—are riddled with corruption and abandonment.
Plain City, Ohio, and the Case for Part-Time Public Office
Contrast this with Plain City in Ohio, where the mayor, earning $17,000 annually, serves part-time. They often hold other jobs or run local businesses that still benefit the local communities. Their role is guided not by personal gain but by public duty. Many U.S. towns and even state legislatures operate this way: citizen-legislators who contribute their time and expertise, then return to the communities they serve.
This model has several benefits:
- Reduced cost of governance: Part-time roles mean lower salaries and minimal allowances.
- Accountability: Officials remain part of society, exposed to the same problems they are elected to solve.
- Reduced careerism: It discourages lifelong politicking and encourages real professionals—doctors, teachers, engineers, Nurses, and Social Workers—to serve temporarily and return to their fields.
- Diminished corruption incentive: If politics is not a path to wealth, it attracts those with a true desire to serve.
Nigeria Needs to Shift
Why does Nigeria need full-time politicians who often accomplish little with their legislative time? Why should lawmakers who meet and/or convene for only a few times in months and/or a year be paid like Fortune 500 executives? Nigeria does not need more full-time politicians it needs part-time public servants and full-time patriots who can genuinely serve their communities and country.
Our legislators should be paid modest stipends. Their salaries should reflect the country’s reality. Their service should be structured to encourage grassroots participation, accountability, and rotation, not dynasty-building and corruption. Nigeria cannot continue funding a political elite while its schools collapse, its health system bleeds talent, and its youth struggle to survive in a country that is blessed with lots of mineral resources.
From Salary Reform to Structural Reform
Yes, we must slash politicians’ pay and allowances. But we must go further. Nigeria must transition to a part-time political model, particularly for its legislators. It worked before. In the First Republic, many leaders were farmers, teachers, and traders—men and women who served and then went home to their daily lives. The country was not perfect, but public office had dignity, not decadence.
The calls for constitutional reform must include a clause mandating part-time political service, with strict salary caps, audited allowances, and zero pension for lawmakers. Politics should not be a lifelong gravy train—it should be a season of service to contribute to the development of the state, community, and the country in general.
A New Vision for Nigerian Leadership
The mayor of Plain City in Ohio, who earns $17,000 a year and still shows up. In contrast to Nigerian politicians who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars and still do less than or beyond what the state and communities expect of them. The absurdity is clear. Nigeria must stop rewarding and encouraging mediocrity in this scenario and start incentivizing service.
Imagine a Nigeria where teachers and educators, and other professionals, earn far less than politicians. Where public servants live among the people, using tinted convoys with security guards. In this context, politics should be considered as a calling, not a career. That Nigeria is possible but only if we restructure governance, reimagine leadership, and restore integrity to public service.
Let Plain City in Ohio be a mirror. Let it show us, especially Nigerian politicians, what humility in leadership looks like. And let it ignite a national conversation: Why do we pay so much for so little in return? It’s time to bring an end to full-time politicians’ ideology and begin an era of part-time leaders, full-time accountability to the people they serve.
