Average worker earns less than what is used to fill his car tank – Abbas

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has advocated a review of salaries for workers in the country.

Abbas said this in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Abdullahi Krishi, in Abuja on Monday.

He said it was imperative to take a look at what an average worker would need to be paid as salary in view of the current economic reality.

He said there was a need to come up with a living wage that would take care of the basics of a person such that he would not have to look outside his lawful income.

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Abbas urged the government to take an example of the UK experiment and the Western world, adding that, “fundamentally, what they did was to sit down and look at what an average worker will need to be paid as salary.

“Today, if you are a labourer in London, you will be paid enough for you to go and pay your rent, take care of your basics and still be able to have a fairly good living.

“With that kind of incentive, you don’t need to go and borrow, you don’t need to go and beg, you don’t need to go and steal.”

He said the current Nigerian situation was such that an average worker earned less than what somebody could use to buy fuel to fill his car tank.

The speaker further said that such an individual with such a burden would not be honest and transparent.

“For us to wage a war on corruption, we need to create an enabling environment where each and every one of us will be able to operate transparently.

This, according to him, is without having to steal, intimidate and having to go and beg or borrow and that is the beginning of the reform.

“If we can get the rule of law working, we will be able to work on the reforms necessary for fighting corruption.

“In fighting corruption, we also need to create an enabling environment where an average worker should be able to earn enough to live with his family,” he said. (NAN)