The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria

  • Workers reject plan to reinstate SEC boss

    Organised labour under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has faulted the Federal Government’s alleged plan to reinstate the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Director-General (DG), Mr. Mounir Gwarzo.

    ASCSN said reinstating Gwarzo, who is on suspension for corruption charges, would further dent the anti-graft war of the present administration.

    In a statement in Abuja, the ASCSN State Secretary, the Federal Capital Territory, Comrade Isaac Ojemhenke, said feelers from the Presidency indicate that President Muhammadu Buhari was under intense pressure by some members of his inner cabinet to recall the SEC DG.

    He alleged that the president’s inner cabinet assured him that even if there was an outcry, it would soon fizzle out just like the case of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Executive Secretary, Prof. Usman Yusuf, who was reinstated and heavens did not fall.

    “But what the cabal does not seem to understand is that the impression being created in the minds of millions of Nigerians with the policy of recalling chief executives and other top government officials enmeshed in financial malpractices is that the war against corruption is a ruse.

    “It is necessary to recall that Mr Gwarzo was suspended after a properly-constituted Administrative Panel set up by the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, found him culpable of financial improprieties,” the union emphasised.

    According to the ASCSN, apart from the fact that the SEC DG approved and paid himself a humongous N105 million as severance benefit while still serving as SEC DG, Gwarzo was also involved in other financial scams, such as compelling the Commission to  award contracts to companies he served as director.

    ASCSN added that this action was a gross violation of Public Service Rules, Financial Regulations and other extant government guidelines dealing with conducts of public officers.

    “By planning to reinstate the SEC DG, the government is creating the impression that Mr Gwarzo is indispensable, yet, the Commission had continued to function during his absence.

    “There are many qualified Nigerians that are capable of performing excellently in such exalted positions so, why should the government continue to reinstate individuals with character deficit into strategic offices,” the Union said.

     

     

     

  • Labour petitions Icpc, accuses NCC boss of fraud

    The Nigerian Copyrights Commission (NCC) branch of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), accusing NCC Director- General (DG) Afam Ezekude of fraud, misappropriation and abuse of office.

    In a petition dated March 5, 2018, which was received at the commission on March 7,  the union accused Ezekude of allegedly using two fictitious firms to siphon about N115 million from the agency, and also illegally withdrawing about N16 million from the staff pension fund.

    The staff members,who shut down the headquarters of the agency at the federal secretariat, Abuja on Monday, also alleged in a statement  to The Nation that the DG embezzled about N390 million meant for various operations of the agency between 2012 and 2013, which were never carried out.

    At the time of filing this report, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment were making efforts to prevent the picketing of the agency as the union threatened that other offices of the commission in Kaduna, Lagos and Makurdi would be shut.

    The union members refused to attend a meeting called by the ministry when they were informed that the DG would not attend as he was out of the FCT.

    They also accused him of illegally acquiring two letters from two different government officials renewing his four-year tenure when it expired, wondering how one person could get two appointment letters for the same position from two different offices.

    They told the commission that the DG “illegally conspired with some government officials in the Federal Ministry of Justice and office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, to secure for himself two separate letters of tenure renewal dated July 8, 2014 and April 24, 2015.”

    The two letters renewing his tenure for another four-year term, copies of which were made available to The Nation were signed on July 8, 2014, five months to the expiration of his tenure by the then Solicitor-General of the Federation, Abdullahi Yola and on April 24, 2015, four months after the expiration of the tenure by the Secretary to the then Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim and copied to the Chief of Staff to the President.

    When contacted on phone,  Ezekude dismissed the allegations, saying that he had already been given a clean bill of health by the ICPC, who has already issued him a letter clearing him.

    He said: “Investigations have been conducted on all those allegations by the ICPC and the ICPC has actually written to me clearing me of all the allegations. This was about two years ago or a year and half ago. I was cleared of all the allegations without exception. That is the position and I have a written clearance from the ICPC. If they have cleared me, I wonder what they will be investigating.

    “It is not as if they cleared me verbally. It was in writing. It makes you wonder why the pull him Down syndrome. You may want to find out from the ICPC if whether what I am saying is the truth because they will have it on their record. Those allegations were found to be unfounded, unsubstantiated and false and so, they cleared me of all of them.”

  • Civil servants condemn plan to deregulate wages

    Civil servants condemn plan to deregulate wages

    THE Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has condemned plans by the Federal Government to deregulate wages in the guise of restructuring the polity.

    In a statement, the ASCSN National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to reject the recommendation of the committee set up by the All Progressives Congress (APC), led by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, which recommended that Labour should be removed from Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list.

    The labour leaders argued that if wages and other labour-related matters were removed from the Exclusive Legislative List, governors, most of whom are not paying their workers’ salaries, would use the opportunity to further impoverish Nigerian workers and their families.

    ”We, therefore, believe that labour like other institutions such as the army, navy, air force, customs service, immigration, among others, are symbols of national unity and should accordingly be retained in the Exclusive Legislative list,” the Union added.

    The ASCSN chieftains recalled that the Chairman of the Committee, Governor El-Rufai had been waging a war of attrition against trade unions in Kaduna State and at a time tried to dissolve all trade unions thereby demanding that thousands of workers in the state should re-apply to join any trade union of their choice, contrary to the extant labour laws, judicial pronouncements, and Conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the right of workers to organise and collective bargaining.

    “As we speak, he has issued a circular stopping check-off deductions from salaries of union members in the sate.

    ”Recently, Governor El-Rufai, in continuation of his anti-workers agenda, sacked 21,000 teachers apart from other atrocities he has been unleashing on helpless workers in the state.

    ”Thus, it is not surprising that the Kaduna State governor has used the cover of the APC restructuring panel to want to completely decimate the trade unions in Nigeria by recommending that wages and other related labour issues should be moved from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list. This will give El-Rufai and his fellow governors the opportunity to start paying peanuts to their workers as wages or no salary at all,” the Union noted.

    The ASCSN leaders warned that anarchy would prevail in the industrial relations arena in the country if millions of workers in the 36 states of the Federation would start to form their own trade unions and wondered how many trade unions would exist in the state and how negotiation would be carried out.

    According to the ASCSN, countries of the world that have National Minimum Wage include but not limited to: United States (US), $15,080 per annum; United Kingdom (UK), $20,063 per annum; Australia, $26,862 per annum; Albania, $2,320 per annum; Argentina, $8,368 per annum; the Bahamas, $10,920  per annum; Brazil, $3,491 per annum.

    Others are Canada, $17,027 per annum; Fiji, $3,189 per annum; Hong Kong, $9,245 per annum; Iran, $3,610  per annum; Ireland, $21,199 per annum; South Korea, $13, 499 per annum; Morocco, $3,664 per annum; Cape Verde, $1,565 per annum; Republic of Congo, $1,821 per annum; Equatorial Guinea $2,611 per annum; Nigeria, $591 per annum.

    The union leaders regretted that the El-Rufai panel could not conduct any research to establish the fact that all countries of the world have national minimum wage.

    The ASCSN then urged the National Assembly, Civil Society groups, religious leaders, prominent citizens, royal fathers, among others, to rise up and reject the attempt by the APC through Governor El-Rufai to further impoverish millions of workers and their families by removing wages and other labour related issues from the Exclusive Legislative list to the Concurrent list.

    In a related development, the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) has urged the tripartite committee on minimum wage to speed up the negotiation process for the benefit of workers.

    Its new President, Lawrence Amaechi, who said this in Abuja after his election, said the welfare of members of the union would be his watchword.

    His words: “As an affiliate of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), our administration will support and collaborate with the Congress and other affiliate unions in all matters affecting Nigerian workers and the masses in general.

    “We are aware that the new National Minimum Wage for Nigerian workers is long overdue. I, therefore, call on the tripartite committee on minimum wage to fast track its work in order to put smiles on the faces of the suffering workers as justice delayed is justice denied, and minimum wage delayed is minimum wage denied.”

  • FG to commence payment of salary, promotion arrears of workers

    FG to commence payment of salary, promotion arrears of workers

    The Federal government is to commence the payment of salary arrears, promotion arrears and other entitlement of civil servants in the country on or before Wednesday, September 20, 2017 as a way of averting further strike by civil servants in the country.

    This was part of the four point agreement reached between the government and the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria to avert the proposed strike action by the union.

    However, while the government says that union has agreed to temporarily suspend the strike till Wednesday, President of the union, Bobboi Kaigama said the union was only being proactive, pointing out that if they fail to commence payment on Wednesday, the strike action will begin.

    A communique signed at the end of the meeting by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour, Bolaji Adebiyi and National President of the Association, Bobboi Kaigama said a seven man committee is to be set up to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

    The communique reads: “Following the seven day ultimatum dated 8th September, 2017 issued by the Association of Senior Civil Servant of Nigeria on the issue of non-payment of salary arrears and other entitlements of public servants especially promotion arrears failing which the Association, propose to embark on an industrial action effective from Monday, 18th September, 2017, the Minister of Labour and Employment convened a conciliatory meeting on tuesday 12th September 2017.

    “Present at this meeting were all the 40 Chapter Chairmen of ASCSN branches and their Secretariat led by the President of ASCSN/TUC-Bobboi Bala Kaigama after an extensive deliberation on the issue of Public Servants unpaid promotion arrears and other entitlements.

    “At the end of the meeting, it was greed that Government will do all that is needed to ensure the commencement of payment of promotion arrears on or before Wednesday 20th September, 2017.

    “It was also agreed that the 30 Ministries, Department & Agencies (MDAs) that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) reported that have been cleared whose payment bill amounts to 1.165billion naira should start to receive credit of payment by Wednesday 20th September, 2017.

    “The OAGF should provide the list of the 30 MDAs that have been cleared to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment and the Association by Wednesday, 13th September, 2017.

    “A seven man Committee to be chaired by the Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment composed of 3 members from the Association and 3 from Government side to midwife, fine tune and monitor the implementation of these decisions.”

    Addressing the union before the commencement of the meeting, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige restated the unflinching commitment of the Buhari administration to the welfare of workers.

    He said: “the arrears in question accumulated for up to a decade but the President very much concerned about the welfare of the citizens resolved to settle the backlog, knowing that government is also a continuum. This is a government that has the interest of workers at heart, the very reason we stoically refused to retrench any civil servant despite dwindling resources we met and worsened by the recession”.

  • Queen’s College: Police detains Oshifala

    Queen’s College: Police detains Oshifala

    The teacher in the middle of the sexual harassment saga at Queen’s College, Yaba, Mr Olaseni Oshifala, has been detained by the police.

    A member of staff of the school said the embattled biology teacher accused of sexually molesting a yet-to-be-identified JSS2 pupil, reported at the police station on Monday but was not allowed to go home.

    That was not the first time he had been to the police over the case.

    He had previously visited the police to complain about the “false accusations” against him.

    He said he was being targeted by people jealous of his success in the school.

    Meanwhile, a protest planned by the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), the union to which teachers of the college belong for Wednesday, was called off.

    Chairman of the Queen’s College chapter of the union, Comrade Abiodun Oladejo, said the protest was suspended to avoid it being hijacked by unwanted elements.

    “We called it off to avoid violence and misunderstanding of our position on the issue,” he said.

    A source also mentioned that while the members of the panel set up by the Minister of State for Education, Prof Anthony Onwuka, was yet to arrive at the college, many more others, including representatives of UNICEF, Lagos State government, visited the college yesterday to investigate the allegations.

    The source also said the commissioner of police, Fatai Owoseni, met with some members of staff.

    “We are expecting the ministerial panelists.  So many organizations are coming around to investigate the case – UNICEF, Lagos State House of Assembly, Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Sports, etc.  About 10 members of staff met with the Commissioner of Police today,” the source said.

    This action is following a call by the Queen’s College Old Girls’ Association (QCOGA) for a criminal investigation of the case.