In an interview with AIT on June 8, Father Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu, Nigeria, urged that governors and national assembly members receive the federal government’s proposed N62,000 minimum wage.
The Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress have postponed a one-week nationwide strike to negotiate the new minimum wage with the government until June 4.
While President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration agreed to the N62,000 minimum salary for workers, Nigerian governors opposed, claiming they could not afford to pay N60,000 as the minimum wage.
In response, Father Mbaka highlighted that governors, senators, and members of the House of Representatives should all get the N62,000 minimum wage.
“We can push these poor Nigerians to the point of rebellion. That is my fear. All of us were in Lagos that day, we couldn’t come back,” Mbaka said.
Mbaka added: “Just like a joke the labour people entered into the airport and stopped every operation and if this happen again it might tantamount to what nobody dreams or what we dream but out of fear we cannot release to the public.
“If we decide to give labour N60,000 or N62,000, why not generalise it to the house of assembly members, senatorial members, house of representative members, and governors?
“All of them are civil servants. So, are the others slaves? I cannot imagine why somebody can be amassing billions and billions as sitting allowance, wardrobe allowance, newspaper allowance, vehicle allowance and what they call suffering allowance.”
