Chike-Obi urges FG to make politicians’ salaries less attractive

The chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mustapha Chike-Obi, has urged the Federal government to make salaries of political office holders less attractive.

Speaking in an interview with Arise TV, the former chairman of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), said poor people should not be left to make all the sacrifices.

Daily Times gathered that Chike-Obi said this in reaction to the federal government’s recent increase in the rate of value-added tax and adjusted petrol and electricity prices to reflect costs.

He said, “People are not making sacrifices. They want the poor people to make sacrifices but if you look at the governors and you see them with 30-car convoys and they live wonderful lives and they fly around in private jets.”

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“Double-digit growth is doable, difficult and requires sacrifice from every sector of the economy, starting at the top,” he continued.

“Look at the fight to death over the governorship of Edo. Edo is an average state but they are fighting to death of the governorship because the rewards of being a governor are so high.

“We should make the rewards much less attractive so that the people that do it do it for love of country, not for the benefits they are going to get.

“Symbolically, all people in government should make Nigerians aware that they are making sacrifices. They’ve cut their salaries, entourages and such. Those things don’t amount to much but they are symbolic.

“National assembly should make symbolic gestures to show Nigerians that we are all in this together. They are not doing that.”