The Labour Party, LP, has described plans to increase the salaries of Nigeria’s political office holders as provocative and insult s to Nigerians.
The party said what should be paramount to the federal government is to increase the salaries of Nigerian workers, who are suffering under the current economic problems facing the country.
According to the party, in a statement released on Wednesday, and signed by the party’s Interim National Publicity Secretary, Tony Akeni, the Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration seems not to be sympathetic to the plight of ordinary Nigerians, and does not care about what they are going through as a result of the economic policies foisted on the country.
LP spoke few days after the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC commission, Mohammed Shehu, disclosed that the salary of political officers holders in the country needed to be raised in line with the economic realities in the country.
The RMAFC remark has elicited serious condemnation form not a few Nigerians who said political office holders are being over-pampered by the country at the expense of other Nigerians.
Critics of the government insist that government functionaries are living in opulence while other Nigerians are swimming in poverty.
The United State, US government had recently criticized the N70, 000 minimum wage for Nigerian workers, saying the wage is incapable of addressing the poverty problems in the country.
The wage, recently approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is less than $3 per day, falling short of global standards which requires the workers wage to be more than $3 per day, analysts say.
For the Commission to have considered salary raise for public office holders at this time, Akeni contend, is insensitive and unconscionable on its part.
He warned that Nigerians will be forced to revolt against the government if the commission went ahead with the plan, describing the chairman’s remark that the salary of political office holders in the country to be very meagre, as false and misleading.
For instance, Mohammed had claimed that the President earns less than the Central Bank Governor and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, to justify the need to raise the salary of political office holders in the country.
“Mr Shehu, at a press conference, insulted the intelligence of Nigerians by claiming that the President receives a paltry N18 million per year—N1.5 million monthly—as salary, while ministers earn N1 million monthly or N12 million annually,” Akeni said.
“This is a lie, as a report from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the President already lives in affluence, aside from his monthly salary,” the Interim National Publicity Secretary.
“If anything, the RMAFC’s campaign should be directed towards increasing the minimum wage of Nigerian workers beyond the current meagre N70,000 per month, which even the United States Government, in a recent statement, urged should be improved.
“If a foreign nation could demonstrate such empathy toward our suffering citizens, then the RMAFC chairman and commission members have no valid excuse not to do more.
“Fellow Nigerians, the fight to dismantle the structure of corruption in our country is not Peter Obi’s fight alone, nor is it that of the Labour Party. It is the fight of all 200 million Nigerians—a fight for our children and generations yet unborn.”
Checks reveals that Nigerian political office holders are one of the highest paid in the world. For instance, Nigerian Senators earn at least N45 million per month, while their counterpart in the House of Representative earns more than N30 monthly.
Fat pay for government officials, critics of the administration insist, is a big drain on the country’s meagre resources at this time she’s faced with serious economic challenges.
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