Akajiugo Emeka Obegolu

I was invited to the Public discourse organized by the law firm of Law Capitol to discuss the Criminal Law Administration in Nigeria with a focus on Economic and Financial Crimes. The keynote speaker who is the Chairman of EFCC shared the Agency’s experience, challenges and insights. In my intervention, I took the view that the minimum wage, including the public sector and private sector salaries make it impossible for employees to live within their means.
I challenged the guests to subject the average salary of about N120,000 of a level 9-10 officer in federal and state employment to a fair reality test to determine whether a family of 4 can survive 30 days on that, including payment of house rent and transport to and from work. The obvious answer became NO. So that staff must find ways and means to keep ends together. That is euphemism for corruption.
Any country that is desirous of fighting corruption must pay living wages to staff of government. This does not excuse corruption but reinforces the need for a better support system to all agencies fighting corruption to be given a fair chance to succeed in the fight.