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December salary: Civil servants tackle Okonjo-Iweala, AGF

By on January 4, 2014

The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria on Thursday described as incorrect and unfortunate the statement credited to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Jonah Otunla, that all federal workers had been paid their December 2013 salaries.

The ASCSN emphasised that thousands of employees in 44 Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government had yet to be paid their December 2013 salaries.

According to the association, some of the 44 affected MDAs that have not paid the workers their December 2013 salaries include the National Boundary Commission, Public Complaint Commission, National Health Insurance Scheme, Federal Ministry of Finance, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, National Emergency Management Agency, National Lottery Commission and Federal Ministry of Works.

The association, therefore, urged the Federal Government to discharge its elementary function of paying the civil servants their December 2013 salaries and arrears outstanding since July of the same year “instead of embarking on empty propaganda.”

The ASCSN, an affiliate of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, in a statement obtained by our correspondent in Abuja and signed by its Secretary General, Mr. Alade Lawal, insisted that it stood by its earlier position that thousands of federal civil servants had not been paid their December salaries and arrears outstanding since July 2013.

He said, “Governance is not about propaganda. The government should, therefore, do the needful by paying the civil servants their remunerations without further delay or face industrial action because this is now a matter of survival for thousands of civil servants who have not been paid the pittance they receive as salary in the same economy where political office holders go home monthly with millions of naira as remunerations.

“These top government functionaries, who are claiming that the civil servants have been paid their salaries, receive millions of naira monthly as remunerations apart from the innumerable perquisites of office they are entitled to, and as such, are necessarily insulated from poverty and since they are in a comfort zone, they can afford to be insensitive to the plight of civil servants, who serve their fatherland diligently in spite of the meagre salaries they receive.

“The government should, therefore, pay the civil servants their legitimate incomes and stop waiting to look for scapegoats on this issue. More than half of the civil servants in the Federal Ministry of Education and the Federal Ministry of Transport have yet to be paid their December 2013 salaries.”

The association urged the government to take immediate steps to pay its employees their salaries, because it was their fundamental right to receive their wages as and when due.

Lawal said the union would not stand by and watch civil servants’ emoluments diverted to satisfy the greed of a privileged few.

 

 

[Punch]