Labour calls for 60% cut in N/Assembly members’ salaries, allowances

The organised labour at the weekend called on the incoming administration of General Muhammadu Buhari to ensure drastic reduction in the salaries and allowances of National Assembly members.

The two labour centres, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), also tasked the incoming government on the need for paradigm shift by tackling corruption, high cost of governance, fraud in award of contracts, insecurity and other social vices headlong.

The unions also stressed the need for immediate diversification of the nation’s economy considering the continued slide in the revenue from oil sector which contributes 70 percent of government revenue, but accounts for less than 15 percent of GDP and less than seven percent of employment.

The workers, who converged at the Eagles Square to commemorate the 2015 Workers’ Day with the theme, ‘The working class, democratic consolidation and economic revival: charting the way to national economic rebirth’, specifically recommended 60 percent cut in the remuneration of the 109 senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives under the new dispensation.

They also called for upward review of the national minimum wage for Nigerian workers which was last reviewed in 2010.

Bobboi Kaigama, TUC president, who decried the high cost of governance under the previous and current administrations, insisted that “the retinue of political appointees must be drastically reduced. The practice whereby lawmakers fix own salaries and allowances should be stopped. Their salaries and allowances should be slashed by not less than 60 percent of the present rates.

“Why should any of them continue to receive over N40 million every quarter while many workers are denied the N18,000 monthly minimum wage? It is preposterous that a sector that scarcely initiates a motion earns more than the president of the United States. They tell us to tighten our belts while theirs and those of their cronies are loose,” the TUC chief said.

Kaigama also urged the Buhari administration to address the problem bedevilling the power sector despite the huge public fund injected into the sector over the years without commensurate result.

He noted that various socio-economic challenges including terrorism, violence, hate speeches, corruption, devaluation of naira, casualisation of workers, outsourcing, unemployment, poor healthcare facilities and infrastructure are still evident and taking great toll on the citizenry.

“As the present government prepares to hand over to a new one later this month, the nation sees a new vista which we all, especially the working class, must crystallize to consolidate on our democratic gains and economic progress and march in to new horizons.

“The entire world acknowledges that Nigeria is a great nation. But many of our people have lost hope due to decades of rape of the national treasury by a privileged few who have thereby subjected the vast majority of the nation’s populace to untold hardship. But greatness is never given. It is earned, and Nigeria must earn the greatness ascribed to it.”

To address the challenges, the TUC boss urged Buhari administration to “fashion out effective ways of checking wastage of our resources, the massive theft of oil, the scandalous incidence of money laundering, over-invoicing and double-invoicing of contracts, dumping of foreign goods and excessive borrowing (especially on unfavourable terms) are activities that must be curtailed immediately. The amount of money that would be saved thereby, the massive infrastructural transformation that it could be used for and the tremendous boost that all these could give to the image of Nigeria and the patriotic zeal of its people are more than enough incentives for needful steps to be taken to actualise these goals.”

He also emphasised the need to strengthen anti-corruption war with greater vigour and commitment and ensure independence of the judiciary by placing it on first-line charge for budgetary allocations.

On his part, Ayuba Wabba, president, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), urged Buhari’s administration to “take a firm stand against the recklessness of our political class who would rather prioritise spending billions on electioneering than pay wages and benefits of workers and retirees.”

Wabba, who bemoaned the high unemployment and poverty rates in the country in spite of the billions of naira spent through the Millennium Development Goals and other poverty eradication programmes, argued that the unemployment rate “is a tragedy of a succession of bad governance in more than four decades.

“While we believe that Nigeria will certainly require an economic reform to address the current fiscal and structural challenges worsened by low oil price and subsequently weak capital inflows, we are more convinced that the way to go is certainly not in cutting jobs, wages and salaries of workers, nor in any disguise making workers the sacrificial lambs of economic mismanagement.

“The primary and most important action is to block all avenues of leakages in budget inflows and expenditure. Closely related to this, is the need to reduce the cost of governance especially which involves maintenance of a large retinue of staff and political ‘hangers on’. This should be complemented by revenue reforms in such a way that space required for growth and stability is enhanced and protected. To this end, government needs to be open and transparent as well as accountable. We are of the firm opinion that this action will generate the immediate short to medium term resources required to get the new administration started.”

Wabba also emphasised the deliberate efforts toward tackling the renewed incidents of armed robbery, kidnappings, cattle rustling, ethnic and sectarian crises, stressing that “the country was virtually at war with itself.

“Unarguably, the most consistent and devastating in scope was the Boko Haram insurgency. The Boko Haram insurgency violated our sovereignty and threatened the bonds that held us together. There were embarrassing moments in the fight against the insurgency as our troops turned tail, battle after battle, abandoning huge caches of arms and ceding territory to a rag-tag army, making not a few to believe the unravelling of the dark prophecy had begun.”