- Calls for Nationwide Strike, Mass Protests
The Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN) has condemned the reported plan by the Bola Tinubu-led government, through the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), to increase the salaries and allowances of political office holders.
It described it as “provocative, unjustifiable and a confirmation of the regime’s pro-capitalist character.”
In a statement signed by its Acting National Chairperson, Bamigboye Abiodun (popularly known as Abbey Trotsky), and National Secretary, Chinedu Bosah, on Thursday, the SPN said the move was a direct assault on the survival of millions of Nigerians who are currently battling worsening poverty, mass unemployment, rising inflation, and the effects of fuel subsidy removal and naira devaluation.
The party said RMAFC’s claim that politicians’ current salaries were “inadequate, unrealistic and outdated” was “an insult to the Nigerian working people,” stressing that political office holders already live in “obscene luxury” while workers are condemned to a N70,000 minimum wage—less than $50.
SPN argued that rather than being increased, the salaries of politicians should be slashed to the level of civil servants, insisting that such cuts could free up resources for public education, healthcare, and other social services.
The party accused the Tinubu government of following the same anti-poor, pro-capitalist path of its predecessors, prioritising “the greed and interest of the capitalist elite over the welfare of the people.”
It urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) not to “turn a blind eye” but to immediately mobilise workers and the poor for a 24-hour warning general strike and nationwide protests as the first step toward defeating the pay rise plan, reversing the petrol price hike, and rolling back “all other anti-poor policies of the Tinubu-led government.”
“At a time when millions of Nigerians are grappling with worsening poverty, skyrocketing inflation, mass unemployment, and the devastating impact of fuel subsidy removal and naira devaluation, it is both insensitive and unthinkable for the government to even contemplate such a pay raise for politicians,” SPN said.
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
