Review salaries of workers to curb corruption — Speaker Abbas
By Ibiyemi Mathew
The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas has proposed a review of the salaries of workers in Nigeria’s public sector to curb corruption.
In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Kirishi, Hon. Abbas said the war against corruption will not be won if the financial dealings in the country remained opaque.
He said, “In Nigeria, some people do whatever they like. You can commit any crime and go scot-free depending on the size of your pocket or the people you know. That has to go.
“Unless we are able to strengthen our rule of law to make it in such a way that it affects both the big and the small, and it doesn’t look at the face of whoever is committing an offence, we will never go anywhere.
“One of such ways is to look at the living wage of workers with a view to enhancing it to make them to be ‘honest and transparent’ in their dealings.
“We need to also intensify the war against corruption. No society in this world can ever thrive and be what it wants to be if corruption is the order of the day. But I agree that for you to fight corruption, there are some things you need to do.
“Let’s take the example of the UK experiment or the Western world. Fundamentally, what they did was to sit down and say let’s look at what an average worker would need to be paid as salary.
“Come up with a living wage that will take care of the basics of a person such that he won’t be looking outside his lawful income.
“The current Nigerian situation is such that an average worker earns less than what somebody can use to buy fuel to fill his car tank, you still want that man to be honest and transparent?
“For us to wage a war on corruption, we need to create an enabling environment where each and every one of us will be able to operate transparently without having to steal, without having to intimidate, without having to go and beg or to borrow. That is the beginning of the reform,” he lamented.
Hon. Abbas also advocated for a system where the rule of law is respected noting that when the law is active, the nation will be able to work on the reforms necessary for fighting corruption.
Recall that the Trade Union Congress and the Nigeria Labour Congress had called on the federal government in May to review the minimum wage in light of the economic hardships being faced by Nigerians.
