Charles Soludo, governor of Anambra state, says elected officials should start earning minimum wage, stressing that Nigeria is broke.

Soludo spoke on Wednesday at the special edition of The Platform, an event organised by The Covenant Nation to facilitate national development.

He said Nigeria has become impoverished due to the flamboyant lifestyles of government officials at the expense of the citizens’ shared wealth.

“Let’s come clean and straight with Nigerians. Nigeria is very poor and broke but the lifestyle of government and government officials does not show it, especially with the obscene flamboyance in public display,” Soludo said.

He went further to say, “The poor are hungry and impatient, let’s not annoy them more with our insensitivity. In this case, I agree with reverend father Mbaka, who said elected governors should also earn minimum wage. I agree that we should be paid that so that we can feel that as well.

“In Anambra, I have not received a kobo as salary since I assumed office. I have donated my salary to the state.

“It is symbolic. It is not much. I think generally, the system is in denial. There must be some signalling, it is just the symbolism of this.”

Soludo urged his colleagues and other elected officials to cut wasteful spending.

“That is why I proposed reinventing the new code of conduct for public officers. For the federal government, the actual projected revenue comes to about N6,160 per Nigerian, per month.

“For the states, except Lagos and a few states, most states have revenues amounting to less than N3,000 per resident, per month.

“It is from this shares per citizen that we are expected to provide all the infrastructure, debt service, pay salaries and pensions, build schools, and provide everything.

“For each of our wasteful spending, let’s be conscious of how many citizens share that we are squandering. Once we lose this consciousness about the public trust we bear, the society dies irredeemably,” he said.