A conference of 44 inter- ethnic youth organisations convened by the President of the Ijaw Youth Council, Abiye Kuromiema, has criticised the jumbo pay package for members of the National Assembly.



The conference’s criticism is contained in a communique, read on Tuesday by the President of the Oodua Youth Movement, Mr. Olalekan Smart, at the end two-day meeting held at Bolingo Hotel, Abuja.



The communique stated that the increase in the remuneration of lawmakers inspired “the legitimate demand of the Nigerian workers for salary increase.”



The groups called on the Federal Government and the citizenry to give attention to the implementation of policies that would boost economic development rather than focusing on increase in salaries.



He said that the current dispute over the minimum wage was a fallout of “the accumulated mismanagement of the Nigerian economy.”



The youths called on the ethnic nationalities to focus attention on the need to develop economic framework designed to ensure economic development.



The President of the IYC, Mr. Abiye Kuromiema, who spoke before the communique was read, said that the current zoning arrangement being pushed by the Northern Elders Patriotic Front led by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, was a ploy to divide the country and appropriate its resources.



Also, the National Secretary of the Igbo youth Alliance, Mr. Chigachi Ekeh, called on Nigerian youths to fight zoning which he described as a drift towards the enthronement of a one-party state in Nigeria.



The organisations at the conference include the Arewa youth Council, the Middle Belt Youth League, Oodua Youth Movement, Ogoni Youth Interraction Network, the Middle Belt Youth Forum, Ibibio Youth Council, and others.


http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201011113512596

The issue is more than the National Assembly members. It concerns all political office holders. The youth must move beyond rhetoric to demanding from the President that he should slash the salaries and allowances of political office holders, including his. That is the solution and not talk.

^^^^ AT least they have spoken up and hopefully will continue to speak and act. In the next 5 years Naija may be so broke that these Youths may become lord knows what

This should have been the basis for the NLC and TUC strike

This should have been the basis for the NLC and TUC strike

Exactly!