Gov Soludo agreed, ‘Governors should also earn minimum wage, wasteful spending’

Abuja, NIGERIA — The Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo has thrown his weight behind calls that governors and other elected officials should be paid the minimum wage to reflect Nigeria’s actual realities, even as he advocated for a significant reduction in the cost of governance in Nigeria.

Speaking at a special edition of The Platform, an event organized by The Covenant Nation to promote national development, Soludo lamented that the nation is financially strained. He criticized government and elected officials for living in denial and displaying flamboyant lifestyles to the detriment of the masses.

Soludo proposed that political office holders should be paid the national minimum wage as a measure to prevent the developing crisis from escalating. He highlighted that while Nigerians are hungry, broke, and poor, the ruling class continues to live extravagantly at the expense of common people.

According to him, Nigeria’s economic troubles are aggravated by government officials’ expensive lives, which are funded at the expense of the country’s resources.

“Let’s come clean and straight with Nigerians. Nigeria is very poor and broke, but the lifestyle of the government and government officials does not show it, especially with the obscene flamboyance on public display,” Soludo said.

Soludo warned that the poor are hungry and impatient, and it is important not to exacerbate their frustration with governmental insensitivity.

“The poor are hungry and impatient; let’s not annoy them more with our insensitivity. In this case, I agree with reverend Father Mbaka, who said elected governors should also earn the minimum wage. I agree that we should be paid for that so that we can feel that as well.

“In Anambra, I have not received a kobo as salary since I assumed office. I have donated my salary to the state.

“It is symbolic. It is not much. I think generally, the system is in denial. There must be some signalling; it is just the symbolism of this.”

Soludo called on his colleagues and other elected officials to cut wasteful spending.

“That is why I proposed reinventing the new code of conduct for public officers. For the federal government, the actual projected revenue comes to about N6,160 per Nigerian per month.

“For the states, except Lagos and a few states, most states have revenues amounting to less than N3,000 per resident per month.

“It is from these shares per citizen that we are expected to provide all the infrastructure, debt service, pay salaries and pensions, build schools, and provide everything.

“For each of our wasteful spending, let’s be conscious of how many citizens we are squandering. Once we lose this consciousness about the public trust we bear, society dies irredeemably,” he said.

Recalled that a Nigerian Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, last week, said governors and members of the national assembly should also earn the N62,000 minimum wage proposed by the federal government.