Public workers under the aegis of the
Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria have called on President
Muhammadu Buhari to reverse all the alleged illegal recruitments
conducted during the administration of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan or
risk trade union dispute.
They also demanded an increase in their salaries, in line with what they described as “the declining value of the naira.”
The PUNCH had on June 22, 2015
exclusively reported that the crisis in the federal civil service
appeared to have worsened with career civil servants protesting against
the absorption of Jonathan’s 530 aides and cronies into the civil
service in the last days of his administration.
The new recruits into the service were
said to have been deployed to senior officers’ positions, starting from
assistant directors upward.
The President of ASCSN, Mr. Bobboi Bala
Kaigama, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by its
Secretary-General, Mr. Alade Lawal, made these demands at its National
Executive Council meeting in Kaduna.
According to him, the upsurge in
arbitrariness and bias in the way and manner the Federal Civil Service
Commission carried out its oversight functions in the name of
recruitment was becoming worrisome.
Kaigama said while cases of illegal
recruitments into the service had continued to rise, the FCSC had
allegedly destroyed the recruitment process into the civil service on
the flimsy excuse of acting on the directive from higher quarters to
grant waivers to some states.
He said, “Our take is that the
commission cannot continue to hide under the guise of spurious waivers
for some disadvantaged states to import and impose unqualified and
incompetent persons into the federal public service over and above
qualified serving officers.
“Cases abound in the service of some
officers who were appointed to positions without the requisite
qualifications, as provided for in the scheme of service, FCSC
guidelines on appointment, promotion and discipline, public service
rules and establishment circulars. Graduates with eight to 12 years
post-graduation experience are being appointed as directors. It is as
bad as that.
“We have made our case known to the
commission and the Presidency on this vexed issue and we are still
waiting for a reversal of all illegal recruitments made in the past five
years in order to return sanity into the system. We make bold to say
that if the reversal is not effected as being demanded, the ASCSN will
have no alternative than to adopt other trade union measures to seek
redress.”
Speaking on the demand by civil servants
for pay increase, the ASCSN President said that although no amount had
been fixed, the organised labour movement, including the Trade Union
Congress of Nigeria and the Nigeria Labour Congress, had set up two
committees to determine the percentage.
According to him, the upward review of
workers’ salaries was necessary going by the current economic realities
vis-à-vis the poor salary being paid to civil servants in Nigeria.
“What we collect as salaries can no
longer take us to the bus stop, let alone take us home. We have endured
for so long and it is time for the government to look into our
direction.
“We are therefore calling on the Federal
Government to enter into negotiation with labour with a view to
creating a new salary regime that will be realistic enough to improve
the quality of lives of workers and at the same time bridge the salary
gap between the core civil service and other sub-sectors of the federal
public service,” Kaigama stated.
The TUC, he said, had not resolved on the amount, but had been receiving submissions on it from its affiliated unions.
He said, “The TUC will collect theirs
and the NLC will collect theirs. We will then come together and
harmonise our positions and come up with one demand that we will present
to the government because the salaries review are long overdue. It is
supposed to be after five years; we are in the sixth year.”
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