Nigerian Concord Newspaper
A leaked memo has exposed President Bola Tinubu of wasting N500m tax payers money to fund the inauguration of the New Minimum Wage Committee
The leaked memo a copy which was available to Nigerian Concord was raised by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume on the 18th of January, 2024.
A copy of the memo reads that Senator George Akume originally asked that the president should approve N1B for the exercise but Tinubu proned it down to N500M.
The revelation was made in a letter addressed to the President by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, which was uploaded on X by @PIDOMNIGERIA (99% OPPRESSED), the initial request submitted to Tinubu was a budget of N1 billion.
The letter titled, ‘Request For Approval Of Funds And Inauguration Of The Tripartite Committee On National Minimum Wage,’ reads: “This memorandum seeks your approval the following in respect of the above subject matter:
“i. The release of the sum of Orte Billion Naira (N1,000,000,000.00) only for the above exercise. This has been scaled down from N1.8Billion.
“ii. The 26th January, 2024 for the inauguration of the Committee. All relevant documents are hereby attached.
“2. The New Minimum Wage is expected to be ready by 1st April, 2024 according to Law.”
“3. Respectfully submitted M President’s consideration and approval Sir,” the letter added.
A handwritten response in the letter from the President instructed the committee to cut down their budget by 50% and start with the approved budget of N500 million.
“Start with N500million first,” the response read.
“The Minimum Wage Committee just allocated the maximum wage for themselves,” a former federal lawmaker, Shehu Sani said while commenting on the development via his X handle.