By CHINEDUM ANAYO

A former speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly and gubernatorial candidate, Rt. Hon. Ike Ibe has advocated for a livable wage for all workers across the country.

This was disclosed in a recent briefing by the former legislator in Abuja.

According to him, minimum wage discussions would never end, insisting that what Nigerian workers actually need, is a livable wage due to a disadvantaged production system.

“As long as there are no factories running, no production facilities open, no goods produced that generates revenue to sustain the economy, no matter how they adjust salaries, it will never be enough,” he said.

Hon. Ibe further declared that many workers have families to feed and bills to pay, stressing that the Nigerian government needs to introduce livable wages because employees work so hard for the nation.

“Every nation, especially Nigeria should pay workers livable wages. There’s nothing wrong with public office holders cutting their salaries as workers don’t have anything to show for their efforts.

“If we don’t have production of goods in Nigeria, we wouldn’t have an economy that can sustain workers, public office holders, development of infrastructure.

“Government must focus not just in consumption but production of goods and services. We basically import almost everything we need, we borrow funds from around the world to sustain our consumption culture,” he added.

He then advised the government to think “outside the box” by being more productive in policies and infrastructure, adding that workers deserve a “livable wage”.