The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said that poor wages, especially for public servants largely promote corruption and bribery in the country.

Speaking on Monday in Abuja, Osinbajo also expressed concern about the implementation of the minimum wage structure across the Federation saying employers should run a contributory pension scheme to help lift many Nigerians out of poverty.

“We need to enforce some kind of adherence to the minimum wage structure. Not just the minimum wage of the lowest paid person, but minimum wages across the board especially so that there is a certain amount of regulation of how people are paid and how they are paid,” he said.

Using journalists as an example, Osinbajo said if they are well paid, corrupt practices ranging from collecting brown envelopes or demanding for brown envelope will not exist as a good pay gives a man dignity and self-respect.

“So, people won’t go about and improvise whether it is a brown envelope or blue envelope. A kind of pay that gives a man enough dignity to say I am not going to be accepting or going make demands of people for brown envelopes,” he said.

Apart from adherence to the minimum wage structure, the Vice President said that regulation of income of workers from the executives to the lowest paid person will promote sane society rid of corrupt practices.

Osinbajo said even the President of the country deserves good pay as it is questionable if the President is not earning as much as the CEO of a private firm.

“Especially so that a certain amount of regulation of how people are paid and what they are paid. The truth is, we cannot pretend that these are wages that makes sense. If the President of the country does not earn as well as the CEO of a good private company, then there is something wrong with that kind of a system.”