Soludo advocates for governors to receive minimum wage in order to empathize with the hardships faced by workers.

The Anambra State Governor, Charles Soludo, has said governors and other elected officials should earn the minimum wage to reflect the current reality of Nigeria.

The governor spoke at a special edition of The Platform, an event organized by The Covenant Nation to promote national development.

According to him, Nigeria’s economic woes are exacerbated by the extravagant lifestyles of government officials, which are sustained at the expense of the nation’s wealth.

“Let’s come clean and straight with Nigerians. Nigeria is very poor and broke, but the lifestyle of the government and government officials does not show it, especially with the obscene flamboyance on public display,” Soludo said.

He went further to say, “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 the minimum wage. I agree that we should be paid for that so that we can feel that as well.

“In Anambra, I have not received a kobo as salary since I assumed 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 signaling; it is just the symbolism of this.”

Soludo urged his colleagues and other elected officials to cut wasteful spending.

“That is why I proposed reinventing the new code of conduct for public officers. For the federal government, the actual projected revenue comes to about N6,160 per Nigerian per month.

“For the states, except Lagos and a few states, most states have revenues amounting to less than N3,000 per resident per month.

“It is from these shares per citizen that we are expected to provide all the infrastructure, debt service, pay salaries and pensions, build schools, and provide everything.

“For each of our wasteful spending, let’s be conscious of how many citizens we are squandering. Once we lose this consciousness about the public trust we bear, society dies irredeemably,” he said.