Slash salaries of political office holders, not workers’ pay, TUC tells FG

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has asked the Federal Government to slash the salaries of political office holders in a bid to reduce the cost of governance.

The TUC said this on Monday in a statement while expressing its opposition to the planned reduction of workers’ salaries by the government.

It noted that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had recently disclosed plans to reduce workers’ salary as part of efforts to cut the high cost of governance.

“To come up with such an idea at a time we are still grappling with the effect of pandemic and millions of people have been rendered jobless for months already is not only preposterous but wicked and, in every shade, ungodly,” the union said.

It said, “Events of the recent past have shown that workers are not the problem; rather the appointees of government are responsible for the sorry state of the country. They brought every strata of the country to its knee.

“May we remind the minister that as at Q4 2020 the unemployment rate stood at 33.3% and it is projected to rise even further in the coming months while the rate of inflation as at March, 2021 stood at 18.17 percent. The consequential effects of these are that we now have more idle hands capable of going into crime.”

According to TUC, the N30, 000 minimum wage, which some states are yet to commence payment, has been rubbished by the high rate of inflation.

It said it had become very imperative for the government to reduce the cost of governance and that must be done the right way.

“Time has come for the take home of political office holders to be significantly reduced. The country is paying them for nothing. Our politicians have so much money which is why they can arm thugs (idle youths) to snatch ballot boxes during elections; give bribe, launder money thereby creating scarcity of forex, buy houses abroad and do other despicable things meanwhile someone is busy pushing for a slash of salary of the impoverished workers.”

According to the TUC, some countries are increasing salaries to make life easy for their citizens.

“We want to also use this opportunity to warn states that have not commenced payment to implement it. We also call on the government to ensure the protection of jobs and reduce the cost of governance by a substantial reduction of salaries of political office holders, starting with the executive, members of the National Assembly, House of Assembly, Chairmen of Local Governments, councillors and aides to politicians,” it said.