By Samuel Luka
The Bauchi State Government has approved a new remuneration structure for traditional rulers that increases their pay by more than 300% and integrates their offices into the state’s civil service framework.
The decision was announced on Monday by Chief Economic Adviser Yahuza Adamu Ningi after the State Executive Council meeting chaired by Governor Bala Mohammed at the EXCO chambers in Government House, Bauchi.
Ningi who represented the state head of Civil Service, Barr. Mohammed Sani Umar, said the move formalises and sustains the administration’s earlier steps to strengthen traditional institutions for better governance and to cover previously ungoverned areas.
He said for years, traditional rulers in Bauchi received only honorariums paid through local governments, with no standardized structure.
Ningi explained that under the new arrangement, their remuneration will be regulated under the state civil service rules.
“This government put them in a structure where everything, from the hamlet up to the emirate, is taken care of by the state government,” Ningi said.
He explained that the Council directed that all traditional institutions be properly enumerated.
Ningi said the government has already provided vehicles and housing for many of the traditional rulers as part of the upgrade.
He said that the new pay scale categorizes rulers into first class, second class, third class emirs, and district heads, with each tier assigned a specific remuneration.
Ningi said it would be difficult to give a flat figure because the classes differ, but stressed that the overall review is “far more than 300 percent” of what many rulers earned before the current administration.
He noted that some traditional rulers previously earned virtually nothing.
The pay review follows the government’s process of creating new emirates, district heads, and village heads to upgrade history and improve administrative reach.
Ningi said the goal was to raise the status of traditional institutions “for ease of governance, to cover ungoverned space, and also to upgrade and uphold history.”
He added that except for the issue of a living wage, which has now been addressed, “virtually everything about traditional institutions in Bauchi is positive.”
The Council’s approval means traditional rulers will now have a structured, state-managed wage system similar to civil servants in Bauchi State.
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