“Planned Salary Increase To Deceive Nigerian Workers”

A member of the House of Representatives, Hon Kehinde Agboola has said the planned increase in the salary of Nigerian workers was a mere deception being contrived by the All Progressives Congress–led government to delude Nigerians ahead of 2019.

The Vice Chairman, House Committee on Drugs and Narcotics said President Muhammadu Buhari didn’t capture the provisions for salary increment in the 2018 budget.

He said “it was a mere deceit to portray them as being workers’ friendly”.

Agboola added that the approval sought by President Buhari for the deduction of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight Boko Haram showed that the president had lied to the country by his earlier comment that the war against insurgency has been won.

He also craved the federal government’s indulgence for the movement of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) from the Ministry of Justice to the presidency, lamenting that the agency was being grossly underfunded unlike the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Speaking in Odo Oro Ekiti in Ikole local government area of Ekiti State on Tuesday, Agboola, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), said there was no way the president can effect salary increase without budgetary provision for it, saying the measure may end up hitting the rock.

The lawmaker, representing Ikole/Oye federal constituency , said he has built 10 solar powered boreholes, build N25 million worth 200 capacity lecture room at Federal University, Oye Ekiti, erected solar street lights in Ire and Odo Oro and donated sewing machines, among others to his constituents since assuming office.

On the contentious salary increase, he said: “what the APC government wanted to do is to fly the kite of salary increase, so that they can have sufficient grounds to defend increase of the price of petrol toN200, this is because it was not captured in the 2018 budget”.

Agboola added that it was so appalling that the president has been lying to Nigerians on his claim that Boko Haram has been defeated, stressing: “If that was true, why was the president seeking approval for $1b withdrawal from the ECA to fight insurgents?

“We can infer that this was an evidence of failure in Boko Haram fight, because they had earlier said they have won the battle.

“Look at what is happening to our economy, it has been grounded by fuel scarcity. Though, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he didn’t recommend Buhari as president to revamp the economy but to fight insecurity and corruption.

“If you look at the whole scenario now, the president seems to be failing even in those areas where Obasanjo thought he would do well.

“The former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal used N700m to cut grasses and today he is not being prosecuted.

“A whole House of Assembly in Ekiti wrote to EFCC about how a serving Minister had mismanaged his state when he was governor, no action was taken.

“Nigerians should tell us, what has Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s government did that has not been witnessed under Buhari?”

“So, I align with Governors Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike that the deductions from ECA should be deployed to fight hunger in their own states as well”, he added.