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.”