- As Father Mbaka Govs, lawmakers should also earn N62k minimum wage
Rights advocate and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, said Federal and State governments can pay the national minimum wage if looted monies are recovered.
This is even as Catholic priest, Ejike Mbaka in an interview with AIT, stressed that governors and members of the national assembly should also earn the N62,000 minimum wage proposed by the federal government.
Speaking on Channels TV, Falana said
“The state governments that are saying they have no money to pay, the money is there. All they need, including the Federal Government, is to muster the political will to collect and recover money either looted or withheld from the federation account,”
Recall that the organised labour and the federal government have yet to reach an agreement on the new minimum wage with the latter rejecting the former’s N62,000 offer.
peaking on the development, Mbaka said salaries of members of the national assembly had been shrouded in secrecy, eliciting speculation and debate from Nigerians.
Mbaka said, “We can push these poor Nigerians to the point of rebellion. That is my fear. All of us were in Lagos that day, we couldn’t come back.
“Just like a joke the labour people entered into the airport and stopped every operation and if this happen again it might tantamount to what nobody dreams or what we dream but out of fear we cannot release to the public.
“If we decide to give labour N60,000 or N62,000, why not generalise it to the house of assembly members, senatorial members, house of representative members, and governors?
”All of them are civil servants. So, are the others slaves? I cannot imagine why somebody can be amassing billions and billions as sitting allowance, wardrobe allowance, newspaper allowance, vehicle allowance and what they call suffering allowance.
“The people that should have such allowances should be the poor masses in the villages.
“As teachers, how much are they being paid? Our nurses and doctors, how much are they being paid? Let us be realistic, our civil servants that work from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
“They wake up early and return late. How much are they being paid. And look at the level of inflation in the country.”
Mbaka asked the government to “speedily” address the minimum wage issue with the organised labour to avoid another strike.
The cleric said it was a matter of taking the bull by the horns tactfully but very speedily because “if they are not careful, this crisis of a thing can be hijacked and nobody knows the ripples effect.”
During the last meeting held by the Tripartite Committee on the New Minimum Wage on Friday in Abuja, labour reduced its demand to N250,000 from N494,000, while the Federal Government increased its offer from N60,000 to N62,000.
The proposed minimum wage may have to wait until 2 July because the National Assembly is currently in recess.
