The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has called on President Bola Tinubu to lead by example in his call for sacrifices by cutting down the cost of governance and reducing the salaries of political appointees.
The NULGE also demanded a single institution fixing salaries of workers and that political officeholders ensure parity, adding that there is the same market system across the country.
The National President of the NULGE, comrade Olatunji Hakeem Ambali who stated this in Ado Ekiti during the commissioning of the NULGE Hotels and Suites initiated by the state chapter of the union, demanded a 300 per cent increase in salaries of local government workers to mitigate the effect of the fuel subsidy removal.
Ambali maintained that every Nigerian including the political office holders should be ready to make sacrifices, calling for a downward review of the salaries and wages of government appointees.
According to him, “I believe government should review the Orosanye report and restructure the MDAs so that at the end of the day we cut down the cost of governance. Not only that, the retinue of aids should be cut down and the salaries and wages of the political office holders should be reviewed downward.
“We operate within the same market system in the country; there is no reason to have two bodies fixing wages and salaries. Labour is of the opinion that we should either put the task on the Wages and Salaries Commission or allow the Revenue and fiscal commission to take up the responsibility. So that there will be parity in salaries and the same instrument will be used to fix salaries.
“That is the way to go. It is time to make available palliatives to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal. We are shocked that after one month of the removal, nothing has been done by the federal government. We are confident that President Tinubu knows what he is doing, but the delay could be dangerous. It is time for him to sit down and address that.
“Salaries of workers should be immediately reviewed upward because it would rub off on the market people and other informal sectors. We demand that the salary of workers be increased by 300% to cushion the effect of the pain we are going through.”
The Ekiti state President of NULGE, Babatunde Olatunde who commended the state governor, Biodun Oyebanji for the payment arrears of salaries and deductions, expressed confidence in the governor to offset the remaining three months’ salary arrears of the local government workers.
“We are not where we used to be in Ekiti, before Oyebanji came to power the state government was owing us as many as 5 months’ salary arrears and 7 months’ deduction, but today we are only left with three months arrears of salaries and two months deductions.
It takes commitment to do what he has done and we are sure that he will defray the remaining in no distant time,” he said.
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