Mbaka also advised the President Tinubu-led administration to handle the matter with caution to avoid crisis
By Kehinde Okeowo
Popular Catholic priest, Rev Father Ejike Mbaka, has reacted to Federal Government’s proposition of N62,000 as new national minimum wage.
According to him, governors, senators,
House of Representatives members and State House of Assembly members should follow suit by earning N62,000 as monthly salary.
Mbaka made this known while faulting the allowances allocated to politicians especially governors and lawmakers, while civil servants and other Nigerians wallow in abject poverty.
After several hours of deliberations by the tripartite committee negotiating the new minimum wage on Friday, the FG announced that it has offered to pay workers N62,000 as minimum wage.
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Reacting to the development, Mbaka said the government should also extend such gesture to political appointees, states chief executives and lawmakers.
He went on to advise the President Tinubu-led government to handle the matter with caution to avoid crisis.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, the priest said: “If we decide to give labour N60,000 or N62,000, why not generalize it to the House of Assembly members, senatorial members, House of Representative members, and governors?
“They are all civil servants, so are the others slaves? I can’t understand why they are amazing billions as sitting allowance, wardrobe allowance, newspaper allowance, and suffering allowance.
“The people that should have such allowances are those suffering in the village.
“How much are our teachers, nurses, and doctors being paid? Let’s be realistic, our civil servants that wake early and return late daily, how much are they being paid?
“Looking at the level of inflation in the country, you will see that we are all not sincere in this country.
“I’m pleading with the government that a stitch in time saves nine; this situation must be handled with care because it might be hijacked and nobody knows the ripples effect.”