By Jude Opara, Abuja
The Labour Party (LP) has condemned in strongest terms the recent proposal by the Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mr. Mohammed Shehu, for salary increase for Nigerian politicians.
Mr. Shehu had at a press conference caused a stir by suggesting that the President receives ‘a paltry N18 million’ for his office in an entire year, as salary, which in his calculations amounts to N1.5million per month, while his ministers receive N1 million per month, which is N12 million per annum.
But in a statement on Friday, Prince Tony Akeni, Interim National Publicity Secretary, Labour Party described the claim as a lie as a denied report from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the President allegedly lives in affluence, beside his monthly salary.
Akeni said Labour Party views the proposed Salary increase as not only unconscionable but insensitive, especially at a time when countless Nigerians are passing through untold economic hardship and deprivations, caused by corrupt ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) led federal government.
The opposition party then advised the Chairman of the RMAFC and ‘his unseen collaborators, in and outside the commission’, who are behind this misadventure is that they should immediately retrace their steps in their best interest.
“Perhaps, the RMAFC, by the proposed increase, is encouraging Tinubu administration’s unquestionably borrowings and accumulation of foreign debt that have already mortgaged the future of the nation’s unborn generations.
“If anything, the campaign RMAFC should consider increase the minimum wage of the Nigerian workers from its present miserable sum of #70,000 per month, which even the United States government in a statement recently advocated for improvement. If a foreign nation could demonstrate such empathy towards our suffering citizens, the RMAFC’s chairman and commission members have no valid excuse not to do more”.
The statement added that the struggle to end the reign of corruption in Nigeria is not going to be an easy one.
“Fellow Nigerians, the fight to dismantle the structure of corruption in out country is not Peter Obi’s fight alone, or that Labour Party. It is the fight of all the 200 million Nigerians, a fight for our children children and generations unborn.
“APC is burning down our country with never before seen corruption in virtually every sector of our economy.
“It takes a village to tie down a mad relative to give him medicine or put him in stocks for the safety of others. In 2027, let us rise together in communal unison as one people, irrespective of tribe, religion and region to see out of our land the wolf packs ravaging our flock, values and destiny as a great country”, the statement concluded.
