The Peoples Demo c r a t i c Party (PDP) has described as cosmetic, the symbolic gesture of President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) cutting their annual salary by 50 per cent. The party in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said that the pay cut does not in any way address the burning issues of unemployment, worsening security situation in the country and the declining economy.
PDP told the president and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), that Nigerians cannot be overwhelmed by such gestures especially given that they are pretty aware that the salary is a mere drop in the ocean of personal allowances and privileges that come to the president.
“While we appreciate the symbolic gesture by Mr. President in ‘cutting’ his N14 million annual basic salary by 50 per cent, it should be noted that Nigerians would not be wavered by the N7 million annual donation and rejection of official cars, and forget their expectations for the implementation of his long list of campaign promises for which he was elected into office,” the statement observed. According to the PDP, Nigerians cannot be deluded by impressions aimed at making government appear to be on course when it has only been a case of all motion, no movement, spiced with unnecessary excuses.
Though the party agreed that one month is too short a time to assess any government, it however, noted that “when this administration and your party started rolling out premature scorecards of imaginary achievements, it became necessary for us and indeed most Nigerians to x-ray them.”
It said that Nigerians have not been thrilled by such orchestrations as “other leaders who at one time or the other adopted similar stance did not dither or become laidback, but hit the ground running with governance. “Instead of engaging in pointless propaganda, the APC and the Presidency should be more concerned about the decline in the economy with the continued fall in the value of the naira which has descended from under N200 to the dollar they inherited in May to all time low of N238 even in the face of the president’s promise to bring it to same value with the US Dollar.”
The party added that what the citizens want is a government that is urgent in living up to its billings and campaign promises. The opposition party told President Buhari that the people would judge him by the extent to which he addressed critical issues of governance for which he was voted into power.
“The issue is about the president facing the challenges of governance and assembling his team of experts and capable hands to manage the economy, which has been on the decline since he assumed office. It is also about allowing the different arms of government, especially the National Assembly to work smoothly and encourage conducive democratic environment where the rule of law, personal freedom and security of lives and property are guaranteed. “Perhaps, we may need to draw Mr. President’s attention to the growing concern that under his watch democratic institutions are no longer free.
While activities of the National Assembly have been disrupted, the nation’s electoral body has lost its independence due to the appointment of an Acting Chairman that is publicly known to have very strong relationship with your good self and key members of your party.
We have also seen flagrant disregard of court orders,” he added. In a related development, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said that the voluntary salary cut undertaken by Buhari and Osinbajo would not in any way improve the economy of the country.
The NLC Secretary- General, Dr. Peter Eson- Ozo, made this assertion in an interview in Abuja. “For some individuals to voluntarily decide to cut their salaries, I think it is cosmetic and I believe we should be more systematic than that. “I think, to begin with, the law, the constitution, prescribes how public office salaries are fixed; if any public officer chooses to reduce his salary, he can donate it to charity or donate it to whomever,” he said.
Eson-Ozo noted that the labour movement had for some time been clamouring for a reduction in the cost of governance, adding that this should not be by cutting salaries. He said that the bulk of what was driving governance cost was outside the prescribed salary. “Any person or the president or any other public officer who then arbitrarily gets up and cuts salary when the law does not put the fixing of that salary in his power, creates a legal problem. “I think that we need to address things in a systematic way.”
Eson-Ozo said that it was imperative for government to focus deeper on ways to reign in the cost of governance rather than the cosmetic announcement of slash in salaries by some public officers. According to him, the process of fixing salary is an institutionalised one and not up to any individual to do. “Because if you can cut salary, does it mean you can just wake tomorrow and increase salary? These are issues we need to take on board in order for us to have a robust type of approach to the system,” Eson-Ozo said.
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