Sen. Bruce, Osun bicker over wardrobe allowance

A decision by Senator representing Bayelsa East and media mogul, Ben Murray Bruce of the PDP to donate his wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers in Osun state has not gone down well with the Osun state government, which has viewed the gesture as a slap on the people of the state.

Bruce had sent out a tweet that read:

“I, Ben Murray Bruce, will not sit down idly, while my fellow citizens die because salaries have not been paid.

As a first step, I am immediately donating my wardrobe allowance to unpaid workers in Osun state and widows in my Constituency,” he said

He added that he will publicly handover his allowance to the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Osun state and the head of widows association in Akasa.

“We are starting in Osun, but we will not end there. I will do as much to help workers who’ve not been paid in other states.

As soon as my wardrobe allowance is paid, I will divide it into two. Half will be publicly given to the NLC Chairman Osun.

The other half will be publicly given to the head of widows association in my community of Akasa.,” he added while enjoining other Nigerians to donate to the workers in Osun and other states of the country, facing similar crisis.

But the Osun state government described the gesture as ‘mockery’.

Semiu Okanlawon , the Director Bureau of Communication and Strategy, office of the governor, Rauf Aregbesola in his reaction, questioned the choice of the APC-ruled state by the PDP senator.

Read his reactions below:

My attention has been drawn to a tweet by a member of Upper chamber of the National Assembly Senator Ben Murray Bruce of the PDP from Bayelsa saying he will not reject the alleged hefty pay for members of the National Assembly but collect it and donate to Osun workers.

It is saddening and tragic that Mr. Murray Bruce whom many had accorded a lot of respect is too early in the day joining the fray of politicisation and trivialising the salary issue affecting more than half of the states of the federation in this ridiculous manner.

While Nigerians are in hot debate over the alleged jumbo pay and the mood of the country Murray Bruce seems to have turned the plight of Nigerian workers to a thing of an entertainment.

Of all the states in the federation who are battling to pay salaries as a result of the precarious economic situation his party the PDP threw Nigeria into why is it that it is Osun he wants to take his pay to? This is certainly playing to the gallery and nothing but a mockery in the faces of Nigerian workers and not only of Osun extraction. It is not only wicked but ungodly to play politics with the suffering of the people.

If the Senator’s conscience tells him his pay is too high especially in the face of the prevailing economic predicament of Nigeria, the most honourable thing to do is to lead a protest for reduction and not a self-serving philanthropy only in the direction of Osun workers, he said.

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