Southampton’s players and coaching staff are to donate their wages from last Friday to the Saints Foundation in a first step towards redeeming themselves following the 9-0 thrashing by Leicester City.
Friday’s rout equalled Manchester United’s 9-0 demolition of Ipswich at Old Trafford in March 1995 for the biggest win in Premier League history.
Saints manager Ralph Hassenhuttl — who accepted the blame for the humiliation — has the daunting task of rebuilding his players morale ahead of two trips to Manchester City this week.
Southampton play League Cup holders City in the fourth round of the competition on Tuesday and are back there on Saturday for a Premier League clash.
“Southampton Football Club’s first-team players and coaching staff have announced they will be donating their wages from last Friday to Saints Foundation,” the club said in a statement.
“The squad has been in at Staplewood Campus throughout the weekend, working on putting things right for the club’s supporters.
“As the first step towards that, the group has decided that they wish to donate their wages from the day of the Leicester game to Saints Foundation, in order to help the vital work that is conducted by the charity.”
The foundation helps children, young people and troubled adults in the Southampton area.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Abdullahi, has said that he cannot disclose on a national television programme, how much he is being paid as a Senator.
Speaking on Channels Television Programme, Sunday Politics, Senator Abdullahi lamented that the Senate is constantly harassed by Nigerians calling for how much they earn and that the issue of Nigerian legislators’ wages has been a recurring one in the last couple of years.
Senator Abdullahi said, “You don’t expect me to come out on national television to say this is what I earn. It is not done. I cannot ask you as a journalist how much you earn. It is not done.
“If anybody is interested in how much we are getting paid, you know where to get the information. The documents are available. If Nigerians won’t believe that, is it, what I will say that they will believe?”
“This issue has become a recurring decimal. In the last two years people have been discussing this matter and I always ask myself, what do people really want to believe? I think if this subject matter has been discussed for two years and we are still looking at issues wrongly, then I think there is something wrong with us.”
Explaining further on the institutions responsible for providing information on salaries of Senators, Abdullahi said a law was promulgated on the Top Political Salary Scale (TOPSA), provisions on which all political office holders are paid.
“The institutions that are responsible for providing this information are there. A law was promulgated on Top Salary Scale also known as TOPSA and it is based on this scale that everyone who holds one political office or the other gets paid.”
Chairman, Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay’s (SAN) last week said that a Nigerian senator earns N29million.
Giving more details, Sagay said, “From the information I have gathered, a Nigerian senator earns about N29million a month and over N3billion a year. Basic salary N2,484,245.50; hardship allowance, 1,242, 122.70; constituency allowance N4, 968, 509.00; furniture allowance N7, 452, 736.50; newspaper allowance N1, 242, 122.70.
“Wardrobe allowance N621,061.37; recess allowance N248, 424.55; accommodation 4,968,509.00; utilities N828,081.83; domestic staff N1,863,184.12; entertainment N828,081.83; personal assistant N621,061.37; vehicle maintenance allowance N1,863,184.12; leave allowance N248,424.55; severance gratuity N7, 425,736.50; and motor vehicle allowance N9, 936,982.00.”
The Senator added that Professor Sagay must have been paid based on the provision of the same Top Salary Scale (TOPSA) from which Nigerian Senators and all other political office holders are paid, adding that he cannot be speaking concerning the figures made available by Professor Sagay.
“I want to also submit that I presume Professor Sagay would have been paid based on the provision of this scale. For us in the National Assembly, the question needs to be asked ‘what is the cost of having democracy and what is the cost of not having democracy?,’” he said.
The Kaduna State Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has appealed to the State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to pay the July salary and wages of workers under the employment of the state.
While declaring support to the ongoing verification exercise, the union frowned at the delay in the payment of workers’ salaries and wages, which it said has brought tremendous hardship to the workers and their families.
Addressing reporters at the end of its Executive Council Meeting, the State TUC Chairman, Shehu Mohammed, also picked holes in the ongoing biometric verification of the state civil servants by the state government, saying the non decentralization and timing of the exercise resulted to the unfortunate suicide attack at Sabon Gari Local Government Secretariat that claimed the lives of their members.
The workers also alleged that government did not carry their leadership along before embarking on the screening exercise.
With the verification exercise still going on, however, the workers are saying that it should not affect the payment of their salaries.
As government tries to sanitize the civil service, they also told the Governor not to sack any genuine civil servant on account of downsizing or cutting down the number of ministries from 19 to 13.
Earlier, the State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, had ordered for an audit of the state civil servants.
He explained that the aim was to identify the actual number of workers on the payroll of government and also identify the ghost workers among them.
The Governor, during his maiden state broadcast, announced that the sum of 120 million naira had been been recovered from the verification.
The Nigerian Medical Association has offered to constitute a board to ascertain the true health status of the Taraba state governor, Danbaba Suntai.
After its national executive council meeting in Abuja, the NMA president, Mr Osahon Onabulele said the proposed board would make available experts to put an end to the lingering political crisis in the state.
The NMA also urged the National Assembly to urgently establish the office of the surgeon-general of Nigeria, who can independently assess the medical fitness of public and political office holders.
The association gave the federal government a 21-day ultimatum with effect from Monday, the 2nd of September 2013, to address the challenges surrounding the nation’s health sector, including the non-payment of wages to doctors and health workers.
