Governor of Anambra State Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has advocated for extreme reduction in the cost of governance in Nigeria.
By James Moses (9News Nigeria -Jos)
Soludo, speaking at the special edition of The Platform, an event organised by the Covenant Nation to facilitate national development, lamented that the nation is broke but government and elected officials continue to live flamboyant lifestyles at the detriment of the Nigerian masses.
The governor said as a way to curb the developing crisis from escalating further, political office holders should be placed on the national minimum wage like other Nigerian workers.
He expressed that hungry, broke and poor, but the ruling class continue to live extravagantly at the expense of the masses.
He said: “Let’s come clean and straight with Nigerians, Nigeria is very poor and broke but the lifestyles of government and government officials does not show it, especially with the obscene of flamboyance in public display.
“The poor are hungry and impatient, let’s not annoy them more with our insensitivity. In this case, I agree with Reverend Father Mbaka, who said elected governors should also earn minimum wage. I agree that we should also be paid so that we can feel that as well.
“In Anambra, I have not received a kobo as salary since I resumed office. I have donated my salary to the State. It is symbolic. It is not much. I think generally, the system is in denial. There must be some signalling, It is just the symbolism of this”.
Soludo, who was the former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) urged his colleagues and other elected officials to cut wasteful spending in governance, stressing that elected officials must always remember they are in office based on public trust.
“That is why I proposed reinvesting the new Code of Conduct for public officers. For Federal Government, the actual projecting revenue comes to about N6,160 per Nigerians per month.
“For the States, except Lagos and few States, most States have revenues amounting to less than N3,000 per resident, per month. It is from this shares per citizen that we are expected to provide all the infrastructure, debt service, salaries and pensions, build schools and provide everything.
“For each of our wasteful spending, let’s be conscious about the fact how many citizens share we are squandering. Once we lose this consciousness about public trust we bear, the society dies irredeemably”, he said.
-9News Nigeria.
