News: Civil Servants want FG to reverse all alleged illegal recruitments conducted during ex-President Goodluck Jonathan Administration
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.
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.
Culled from Punch Newspaper