Labour calls for downward review of political office holders’ salaries, allowances

Following the recent move by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to review salaries of political office holders in the country, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called for a downward review of the salaries of all affected officials.

NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, made the call at a press briefing held in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said political office holders in Nigeria are being over-paid. “The salaries of our political elites are much higher than any other in the world,” he noted.

This, according to him, was to ensure that both parties are on the same level adding that “we go to the same market.”

“I was thinking that wage review should be upward or downwards, but Wabba said, “in the case of our political elites, it should be downwards.”

He said that in other climes like South Africa, the margin between the minimum wage and what politician earns can be determined.

“There are imperial data to arrive at the differential. But in our own case,  what is the differential?” he queried.

Wabba also lamented that when workers were receiving N18,000 minimum wage, RMAFC reviewed their salaries to 800 percent.

Meanwhile, the organised labour also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as a matter or emergency, address the issue of national security, saying the country is not safe.

Speaking on behalf of the organised labour, Wabba said that a regular basis, the Boko Haram insurgents have been hitting soft and military targets on a scale and regularity that makes one wonder if the gains of the past have not been reversed or wiped out.

Asked whether the service chiefs should be sacked or remain in office, he said, “I don’t want to be in the politics of whether they should go or not.”

“What we demand is that the issue must be addressed. If in the process, they needed to go, that is the decision that the President and Commander-in-Chief needs to take. But we want efficiency; we want the issue to be brought to an end,” Wabba said.