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By Madu Obi
Awka- A political and financial analyst, Mr. Ifeanyichukwu Afuba has called for the unification of the wages of political office holders with those of the civil servants, arguing that it would help to stabilize the country's economy.
He said in a statement in Awka that if the salaries and allowances of Nigeria's political office holders are tied to the earnings of civil servants and other career public officers, it would break the elastic mode of emoluments received by political functionaries.
According to Afuba, a proportionate linkage of politicians' earnings with the pay of other public sector workers would sanitize the outrageous package enjoyed by political office holders.
He said: "The political class must be defined and put in the national context. If we want to put a stop to what the political class, a tiny bit of the population, awards to itself as entitlement from our collective wealth, we must insist on relativity."
"We should demand a legislation that specifies what is reasonable and fair as the entitlement of political officers. There should be a law that spells out that the salary of federal legislators cannot be more than 300 percent of the national minimum wage."
"We can either use the minimum or the maximum wage standard of career public officers to calibrate the package for elected and appointed functionaries in government."
"When government gives car loan to workers, for instance, there's an earning ratio that determines what is awarded. If that transparent process was in use in the recent allocation to national assembly members for vehicles, the grossly insensitive N160m vehicle grant to federal lawmakers would be inconceivable."
"There are certain principles at the heart of this proposal. The first is to make it clear that public office is not an avenue to make money. If you cannot take moderate pay as a minister or senator, then don't bother coming to hold the office, venture into business or gambling."
"Secondly, national service is national service. It's wrong to glorify any public office against another. All institutions are important. Therefore, reward system should be justly applied across board."
"The salutary effect of an intervention of this nature in the public estate would be on one hand, a sense of service delivery in government, and on the other, a good deal for workers for the simple reason that if the political class desires comfortable salaries, it must first increase workers' pay."
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