The Nigerian main workers body said Friday a proposal to raise the pay
of the country's president and other officials by 150 percent will
trigger inflation in the west African country.

"The economy cannot absord the new salary package being proposed for the
president, his deputy and other public office holders. It will cause
spiral inflation and should be discouraged," a spokesman for the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) told AFP.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a national executive committee
meeting of the NLC which opened on Thursday in the southern city of
Yenagoa.

"The way our political office holders award huge increases in
salaries, allowances and perks to themselves calls to question their
sense of justice," NLC president Abdulraheed Omar was also quoted as
saying.

"The huge cost of maintaining public office holders has become a drain
on our resources and is therefore not sustainable," he said.

Omar said government should implement programmes and policies that would
improve the living conditions of the people rather than dole out jumbo
pay for its officials.

"We challenge our leaders apply the same parameters and conditions to
determine the wages of workers," he added.

A copy of the bill passed by the senate and made available Wednesday to
AFP shows the President's annual basic salary increasing to about 3.5
million naira (29,000 dollars/20,000 euros) from about 1.4 million naira
(12,000 dollars/ 8,000 euros).

Nigeria's chief justice will be paid about 3.4 million naira, up from
1.3 million naira, and the vice president is to earn about three million
naira, up from about 1.2 million naira previously.

Others public officers to benefit from this pay rise include
ministers, presidential advisers, the chief of staff to the president
and the secretary to the federal government.

The increase was recommended by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and
Fiscal Commission, the body responsible for fixing the salaries and
allowances of public office holders.

But it still faces a vote in the House of Representatives, Nigeria's
other parliamentary chamber, before being put to the president himself.