The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Tajudeen Abbas,
has called for a salary review for workers to make them more honest and transparent in their dealings.
Speaking at a reception organized in his honour by the Nigerian High Commission in London, Dr Abbas said
this would also make the fight against corruption more successful.
He observed that no society can ever thrive if corruption is the order of the day.
“Let’s take the example of the UK experiment or the Western world. Fundamentally, what they did was to sit down and say let’s look at what an average worker would need to be paid as salary. Come up with a living wage that will take care of the basics of a person such that he won’t be looking outside his lawful income.
“Today, if you’re a labourer in London, you will be paid enough for you to go and pay your rent, take care of your basics and still be able to have a fairly good living. With that kind of incentive, you don’t need to go and borrow, you don’t need to go and beg, you don’t need to go and steal.”
According to him, the current Nigerian situation is such that an average worker earns less than what somebody can use to buy fuel to fill his car tank, a condition he said can make any worker to become corrupt.
He said the law of the land must be worked in such a way that both the “big and the small” are treated the same way to give everyone a sense of justice and fairness.
The Speaker also advocated for cultural revolution where a man maintains a family that he is able to take care of at a point in time.
The Nigerian High Commissioner to UK, Ambassador Sarafa Tunji-Isola, said the reception was organized to honour the Speaker, “who has just emerged in a very popular election that is unprecedented.
PR/IBRAHIM SHEHU
