Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo stated on Wednesday that governors and other elected officials should be paid the minimum wage to reflect Nigeria’s actual realities.
He stated that, despite the flashy lives depicted by governors and elected officials, the country was experiencing a severe financial crisis.
The governor spoke during a special edition of The Platform, which is hosted by The Covenant Nation, to encourage national development.
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 also revealed that “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.
