NLC says Buhari, Osinbajo salary cut is cosmetic

*Cut meant to gain popularity – PDP

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the voluntary salary cut undertaken by President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo would not in any way improve the economy of the country.

The NLC Secretary-General, Dr Peter Eson-Ozo, made this assertion in Abuja, yesterday.

“For some individuals to voluntarily decide to cut their salaries, I think it is cosmetic and I believe we should be more systematic than that.

“I think, to begin with, the law, the constitution, prescribes how public office salaries are fixed; if any public officer chooses to reduce his salary, he can donate it to charity or donate it to whomever.”

Eson-Ozo noted that the labour movement had for sometime been clamouring for a reduction in the cost of governance, adding that this should not be by cutting salaries.

He said that the bulk of what was driving governance cost was outside the prescribed salary.

“Any person or the president or any other public officer who then arbitrarily gets up and cuts salary when the law does not put the fixing of that salary in his power, creates a legal problem. I think that we need to address things in a systematic way.”

Eson-Ozo said that it was imperative for government to focus deeper on ways to rein in the cost of governance rather than the cosmetic announcement of slash in salaries by some public officers.

According to him, the process of fixing salary is an institutionalised one and not up to any individual to do.

“Because if you can cut salary, does it mean you can just wake up tomorrow and increase salary?

“These are issues we need to take on board in order for us to have a robust type of approach to the system, Eson-Ozo said.

On the issue of the minimum wage, the NLC scribe urged the Federal Government to begin preparation for the review of the salaries of Nigerian workers.

He stressed the need to begin the review process by setting up a tripartite committee to kick-start.

“Every five years, the minimum wage is supposed to be reviewed and the current wage will be due for replacement by next year. It is important for the Federal Government to start the process; preparation should have started before now.

“That is the process of the preparation in terms of gathering information and analysing them, in order to have the law reviewed for at least another five years.”

Eson-Ozo said that the labour movement had over time reminded government of the provision of the law which stipulates a review of the minimum wage every five years.

He added that it was important to constitute the tripartite committee, to avoid other issues arising within the limited time.

The NLC secretary-general also warned government against any plan to slash workers’ salaries, saying that the economic situation in the country was not favourable.

Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused President Muhammadu Buhari of trying to gain cheap popularity by cutting his salary by 50 percent.

In a statement on Tuesday, Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the PDP, urged the president to stop “brandishing cosmetic achievements and focus on governance”.

“As the leader of the most populous black nation in the world, we believe you should not allow your presidency to be pushed into the gimmicks of playing to the gallery and attempting to use the dramatisation of promissory notes and pledges by foreign interests, false premature claims of victory against insurgency, dramatisation of salary cut and rejection of official cars, all to gain cheap popularity and create an impression that the government is on course when in the actual fact, the new administration has not been able to locate a bearing since its inauguration in May.

“While we appreciate the symbolic gesture by Mr President in ‘cutting’ his N14 million annual basic salary by 50 percent, it should be noted that Nigerians would not be wavered by the N7 million annual donation and rejection of official cars, and forget their expectations for the implementation of his long list of campaign promises for which he was elected into office.

“The presidency should know that these orchestration, no matter how populist it may seem, does not in any way address the burning issues of employment, worsening security situation, decline in the economy, avoidable inactivity in government businesses, and continued apparent slide of the naira which has dipped from under N200 to the dollar in May to an all time low of N238 under the APC administration, among others.”