Chris Ngige, the minister of labor and employment, has revealed that his monthly take-home pay is N942,000 after taxes.
On Monday, May 1, 2023, Ngige revealed this while participating in the Channels Television Politics Today show.
Ngige responded that he, like other ministers, is not eligible for any extra perks when asked if the salary includes them.
When pressed further to clarify the claims, the Minister said: “My feeding, my transport, the salary of one Personal Assistant (PA), the salary of my gardener, my books, they are all consolidated. And after heavy taxation, they pay me N942,000. Every minister you see that is what it is. We don’t have any allowances except when we travel.”
Ngige had asserted that although Nigerian employees have a right to demand higher wages, the federal government is making every effort to meet their demands.
However, the Labour Minister disregarded rumors that the minimum wage would increase before President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration ends.
Ngige clarified that such reviews occur every five years, and the next one would be in 2024 under the incoming administration as the most recent one was in 2019.
Ngige Reveals Why Doctors Should Not Go on Strike
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), in a separate incident previously, came under fire from the Minister of Labor and Employment for threatening to go on strike if their demands are not granted within the next two weeks.
The resident doctors reportedly gave the federal government two weeks to comply with their requests or risk industrial unrest on Saturday, according to news reports.
This information was provided by the resident physicians in a statement released on Saturday following the conclusion of the NEC’s Extraordinary National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The wellbeing of the doctors, the alarming pace of their emigration to other nations, poor pay, insufficient support for the health sector, and the consequent detrimental impact on the populace and the health workers were some of the demands cited by the doctors.
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In addition to the increased allowances based on the CONMESS study, other demands include an immediate increase in the CONMESS to the tune of 200 percent of the existing gross pay of doctors.
The NARD also urged that the measure requiring medical and dental graduates to perform five years of mandatory service in Nigeria before receiving full licenses to practice be immediately withdrawn and abandoned.
Ngige stated in an interview shown on Arise Television on Monday that doctors cannot go on strike in protest of a measure that would require them to remain in the nation for five years before receiving full licenses to operate.
While adding that the government has given resident doctors “everything they want,” the minister claimed that the doctors’ demands show they have a “entitlement syndrome”.
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He continued by saying that the law attempting to restrict the movement of healthcare professionals is a “private member bill” and is outside the purview of the administration.
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