Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, on Wednesday, opined that elected officials should start earning minimum wage.
He disclosed this at the special edition of The Platform, an event organised by The Covenant Nation to celebrate 2024 Democracy Day
While stressing that Nigeria is broke, he added that the nation has become impoverished due to the flamboyant lifestyles of government officials at the expense of the citizens’ shared wealth.
According to him, these officials should be paid the minimum wage to experience what citizens are facing, adding that the system is in denial.
His words: “Let’s come clean and straight with Nigerians. Nigeria is very poor and broke but the lifestyle of government and government officials does not show it, especially with the obscene flamboyance in public display.
“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 minimum wage. I agree that we should be paid that so that we can feel that as well.
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“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 signaling, it is just the symbolism of this.”
Soludo called for a new code of conduct for public officeholders to enhance fiscal prudence while performing the core duties for which they were elected.
“That is why I proposed reinventing the new code of conduct for public officers.
“For the federal government, the actual projecting 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 this 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 about the fact how many citizen share we are squandering. Once we lose this consciousness about the public trust we bear, the society dies irredeemably,” he added.
