Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Imo State chapter, Austin Chilakpu, has described as “too many” the appointment of 43 ministers by President Muhammadu Buhari. He therefore urged the president to merge the ministries to save cost of governance at the federal level.

Speaking on ‘People’s Voice’ on Owerri-based private radio station, Darling FM, Chilakpu described as ridiculous the monthly payment of N36 million to each senator in the country, calling for a humongous slash on the monthly pay packet of senators and House of Representatives members to realise the payment of the N30,000 minimum wage. He also queried the alleged double pensions received by senators who had been governors.

“This is too many. If you reduce the number of ministers, reduce ministries and merge them, we save more money. Each senator left with N36 million before recess. You can imagine what each member of the green chamber received,” he said.

He predicted that the outcome of the August 20 National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NLC in Kano State would shock the nation, if nothing concrete comes out of the Federal Government/labour’s negotiation.

The take home pay of a worker after tax and other deductions on the minimum wage, he revealed, is N24,000 monthly. His words: “On August 20, a NEC meeting will be held in Kano (for us) to take a stand. We want to exhaust every avenue of negotiations, and where it fails, we take legitimate steps.”

Chilakpu, who is also the chairman of the organised labour in Imo, decried the suffering of the retirees in the country, urging the governors and the president to pay pensions promptly. (The Guardian)

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