In a statement released on Sunday, General Secretary Peters Adeyemi called the decision to cut federal workers’ wages “provocative.

On May 4, Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed made the announcement at the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission’s National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance (ICPC).

The National Employment, Incomes, and Wages Commission (NSIWC) has been directed to study existing salaries, according to Ahmed.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Ayuba Wabba, cautioned that the plan amounted to “mass suicide.”

NASU praised the administration for paying wages on time, but said the decision to implement a pay cut would be a win for those willing to be insensitive to workers’ plight.

“Rather than leave workers to remain in their current state of want, they have decided to provoke and incite them against the same government they are working for.

“No government official who wishes Nigerian workers well and is interested in the peace of the country will advise on this line of policy direction at this time”, Adeyemi noted.

The union leader warned that people already suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic should not be made to suffer any more.

He cited hyperinflation’s high cost of living, food prices, rises in energy tariffs, and the cost of gasoline as examples.

The National Association of State Universities (NASU) has called for a decrease in political office holders’ salaries and the massive annual recurrent expenditure spent on them.

The body chastised ministers, ministers of state, special advisors, special assistants, heads of departments, and their entourage of personal staff for duplicating duties.

Adeyemi recalled that the Public Sector Reforms report of the Adamu Fika Committee set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan called for a review of certain government roles.