The Anglican Bishop of Calabar Diocese, Prof Nneoye Egbe has declared that the system in Nigeria seems to have programmed the average Nigerian worker to steal.
He spoke to Arogidigba Global Journal while commenting on the national Minimum Wage which the federal government was still unable to arrive at with the Organised Labour.
The Bishop said it was insulting that a Nigerian with a family goes home after a month with N30,000, describing it as sheer wickedness on the part of the government.
“How can such an amount of money take care of the worker’s wants and family expenses? This way, is he not programmed to steal?
“Enter any office in this country now, as you are coming everybody is looking at you with expectation.
“As you are going, they are greeting you ‘oga how far? Anything for the boys; all sorts of things. These are people trying to make ends meet and you will not blame them.
“The scriptures say the labourer is worthy of his wages. It is unfair even before God not to pay a civil servant or those in private employment commensurate salaries. So we have a nation where the average worker goes home without adequate rewards.
“I think it is insensitive of the government to wait for labour to protest before they recognize that the wages of the Nigerian worker should be improved on.
“In civilized climes, yearly increments and other economic indices are built into the minimum wage but here it is fixed like Olumo Rock that cannot move.
“I feel very offended about what people are paid. In my opinion, with the current inflation, no Nigerian should earn less than N300,000,” he stated.