The President’s and the Vice-President’s pay is low, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo said yesterday.
He criticised the private sector for not respecting the national minimum wage law, which puts the lowest pay at N18,000.
Speaking
at the end-of-year seminar of the State House Press Corps at the old
Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa in Abuja, Prof. Osinbajo said he
earns about N1.5m as Vice-President; President Buhari earns about N1.75
million.
To him, the pay is not commensurate with the offices they occupy.
The
vice president also expressed misgivings about the remuneration of
journalists and lawyers, saying journalists’ case is unique because many
media owners make big revenue but simply refuse to pay good wages.
He
recalled his brief encounters working with media houses as legal
adviser and how in all the months he worked he was not paid despite the
irregular hours he put in.
Osinbajo spoke of entry into
journalism as not rigorously regulated or enforced by professional
bodies because untrained persons are allowed in.
He added:
”I realised first of all that this (journalism) is not a profession
from which one could make a decent living in the first place unless you
find a really good way of doing so.
”But more importantly for me is that you are just on your own. Journalism as a profession is so wide open.
”There
are a few reasons in my view why remuneration is poor.”The first is
that it is just simply cheating. There are owners of media that are
just cheats. They just want to get something from nothing and that is
not uncommon, it is a general malaise, it is not necessarily restricted
to the media.”It is also the same in the legal profession. There many
lawyers if they tell you what they earn, you will certainly not want to
be a lawyer.”The private sector does not respect the minimum wage. Even
if a minimum wage is set nationally, it is not necessarily respected by
the private sector and this is something that should be factored in to
the status of a company and whether a company is even complying with the
requirements.”
The Vice-President urged journalists to brighten their prospects and
future by always seeking ways of improving themselves and getting
better job opportunities with attendant improved income.
Nasarawa
State Governor Tanko Al-Makura, represented by the Commissioner for
Information, Mohammed Kwara, was the chairman of the ceremony.
He said:
“It is important to note that a good retirement plan starts the very day
you are employed, knowing that whatever has a beginning has an end; 35
or 60 mandatory years of service are certainly not eternity.
”It must also be stressed here that it is not too late to plan even where you have just few years to retire from service.
”The
most important thing is that you have a plan either of money saved or
of the job you intend to carry on after retirement. Put every other
factor in place such as your age, strength and the mental capacity to
carry on.” he advised.
He added “It is important to state, therefore,
that the uncertainty on payment of entitlements has continued to worry
Nigerian workers, making them fear retirement.
”This has led to prospective retirees falsifying their age just to enable them stay put in the service.
”In
this regard, a lot of corruption induced activities have continued to
infiltrate the MDAs and the organised private sector responsible for
managing pension,” he said.
The Nation