The Special Adviser to the President on Media Mr Bayo Onanuga has carpeted The Guardian Newspaper, describing it’s straw poll in the Tinubu administration’s recent increase as jaundiced and out to destroy the image of the government.
In a statement published on his X handle, Onanuga said the questions asked was wrong even as those to whom they were directed, adding that the increment had nothing to do with salaries and wages, and was not for all classes of Federal Government workers.
Specifically, he said the wage increase was for only workers who are on the six consolidated salary structures and it was to workers in these categories that any such poll should have been focused.
Onanuga’s statement reads: “The Guardian newspaper in its drive to destroy the image of the Tinubu administration asked civil servants in some parts of the country to comment on the recent wage increase announced by an agency of government.
Those interviewed in the straw poll, including state workers not on Federal pay roll, charged back to accuse the government of deceit. But the newspaper got its facts muddled up. It also asked the wrong question.
The press statement by the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission was clear enough: The wage increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent applies only to Civil Servants on the six Consolidated Salary Structures. They are the civil servants on Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) and Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS). Others are: Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS). Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).
The increase does not apply to all civil servants. And it is different from the minimum and living wage, being worked out by the Tripartite Committee.
I wonder why the Guardian editors deliberately misinterpreted the statement, if not in furtherance of the campaign of the newspaper group to sully the reputation of government. Newspapers are free to criticise government at all times, but it must be criticism based on facts.