By Bimbo Oyesola
THE organised labour has warned that the plan by the Federal Government to abolish tenure of office for top civil servants will destroy the cherished norms in the public service if not check mated.
Noting that it amounts to policy inconsistency, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), expressed shock by the sudden decision by the Federal Government to abolish the tenure policy for permanent secretaries and directors in the public service.
The union, therefore, urged the Federal Government to halt the plan and summon a stakeholders meeting to discuss the issue.
The tenure policy, which started in 2009 under the late President Umaru Yar’Adua stipulated two terms of four years for permanent secretaries and single eight-year tenure for directors.
The ASCSN National President, Bobboi Bala Kaigama and the Secretary-General, Alade Bashir Lawal, alerted the public that the persistent policy somersaults by the present government if not put in check would destroy the age long civil service.
The union recalled that few months ago, the Federal Government for inexplicable reasons, elected to recruit non-serving officers as Permanent Secretaries some of whom were above 60 years of age in flagrant violation of the Public Service Rules (PSR).
“This is in a situation where there are highly skilled, educated, and knowledgeable civil servants who should have been elevated to these exalted positions.
“All appeals by this Union to the government to reverse the appointments and promote senior civil servants who have served the nation meritoriously for decades to the posts of Permanent Secretaries were treated with contempt,” Kaigama said.
He said the Union wondered if by this abolition of tenure, all Permanent Secretaries and Directors who were supposed to retire now have had their tenure extended.
Kaigama noted that in February this year, a Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resource, who retired same month, had her service extended to February 2017 while other Permanent Secretaries exited.
“What all this boils down to is the continuation of the culture of impunity that characterised the last Federal Administration. For how can you run a system where rules are breached without qualms,” he said.
According to the ASCSN, when the present government came to power, the Union in series of letters to the Presidency chronicled outstanding salaries, promotion arrears, 1st 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, duty tour allowances; among others, owed public servants, and demanded that they should be paid.
It added that although the Federal Government went through the motion of setting up a labour/government panel to collate the outstanding indebtedness, no payment had been made to public servants affected more than eight months after the committee submitted its report.
“What is more worrisome about all this is the perception that government can do anything it likes without consulting the stakeholders. This is wrong in a democracy where all views and perspectives on major Government policies should be subjected to vigorous intellectual discussion before pronouncement and implementation.
“This is why the government should start now to engage workers representatives and other stakeholders in various sectors of the economy before implementing any policy that affects the Nigerian people. After all, we are supposed to be running a democracy where constructive dialogue is central to policy formulation and implementation,” Kaigama said.
He, therefore, urged the government to put the implementation of the tenure abolition system on hold and summon a meeting of strategic stakeholders to review the policy.
He said the consistent policy sommersaults had continued to generate intense restiveness among public servants and that the situation should not be allowed to deteriorate further.