Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas has advocated for a review of salaries for workers in the country.
Abbas said this in statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Abdullahi Krishi on Monday in Abuja.
He said it is imperative to take look at what an average worker would need as salary, in view of current economic reality.
According to him, there is a need to provide a living wage to take care of workers’ basics.
Such wage should be such that the worker would not have to look outside his lawful income.
Abbas urged the government to take an example from the UK experiment and other Western world.
“Fundamentally, what they did was to look at what an average worker will need to be paid as salary.
“Today, a labourer in London, is paid enough to comfortably pay rent and take care of his basic needs.
“With that kind of incentive, you don’t need to go and borrow.
“You also don’t need to go and beg, you don’t need to go and steal,” he said.
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Abbas said the current Nigerian situation “is such that an average worker earned less than what he could use to buy fuel to fill his car”.
He further said that such an individual with such a burden would not be honest and transparent.
`“For us to wage war on corruption, we need to create an enabling environment.
“That is an environmetn where every one will be able to operate transparently.
“This is without having to steal, intimidate or having to go and beg or borrow.
“That is the beginning of the reform.
“If we can get rule of law working, we will be able to work on reforms necessary to fight corruption.”
To fighti corruption, he said Nigeria needed to create an enabling environment where an average worker should be able to earn enough to live with his family.
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