PRESS RELEASE

The recent news that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) is planning to increase the salaries of political office holders for the President, governors, legislators, and others stands as nothing short of callousness and a cruel insult to the already battered working-class people of Nigeria.

It is utterly unimaginable that politicians who already pocket enormous allowances, enjoy endless perks, and live wastefully extravagant lifestyles would still seek to endorse higher pay at a time when millions of Nigerians cannot afford a decent meal, transport, healthcare, or even basic shelter. This planned increment is a slap in the face of ordinary workers, pensioners, students, and the unemployed, who are daily confronted with rising inflation and crushing economic hardship.

We in the Solidarity Network for Workers’ Rights (SNWR) strongly condemn this reckless plan and call on all workers, trade unions, and oppressed Nigerians to reject this attempt to further enrich a political elite at the expense of the majority living in hunger and misery.

It is important to recall that President Bola Tinubu, within just days of assuming office in 2023, approved a scandalous 114% wage increase for political office holders. Like the current plan, that decision exposes the government’s misplaced priorities, throwing scarce public resources at politicians who run corrupt neoliberal programmes while starving critical sectors such as education, health, housing, and infrastructure.

The contradiction is glaring. The same government that claims it “does not have enough resources” to implement a new minimum wage for workers is shamelessly quick to reward itself and its cronies with salary hikes. Workers across various sectors have taken to strikes and protests over unpaid salaries, unfulfilled agreements, and the refusal of both state and federal governments to implement new wage structures. For instance,

Workers at Lagos State University were forced to embark on strike over the state government’s neglect of a signed agreement, including the implementation of a new salary structure.

Nurses nationwide have just suspended their strike actions after weeks of agitation for fair pay and better working conditions.

The Academic Staff Unions of universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education have all issued ultimatums to the Federal Government over similar wage and funding issues, yet the government remains unmoved.

Meanwhile, inflation continues to soar, the naira weakens daily, and the cost of food, transportation, rent, and electricity bills relentlessly erodes the already meagre wages of Nigerian workers. This continues to be the daily routing crisis confronted by the masses, no wonder the government have to rebase the employment and inflation figures in order to create the false impression of a stable economy.

The SNWR insists that this latest manoeuvre by RMAFC and the ruling elite must be resisted. Nigerian workers and the poor cannot continue to be sacrificed on the altar of greed and corruption. Instead of lining the pockets of politicians, the government must channel resources into implementing a living wage for workers, improving public services, and rescuing the economy from the disaster created by its anti-people neoliberal policies. We therefore call on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), students’ bodies, and all oppressed layers of society to unite in a mass campaign of protests and strikes to defeat this brazen attempt to further loot the nation’s wealth. Only the determined resistance of the working masses can stop the ruling class from deepening the exploitation of Nigerians.

Signed

Aj. Dagga Tolar

General Secretary, MSA.