The Nation Newspaper

Tag: promotion

  • Rumble in Fed civil service over perm secs promotion exam 

    Rumble in Fed civil service over perm secs promotion exam 

    A civil society organisation (CSO), the Centre for Public Accountability (CPA), has urged the Federal Government to investigate the controversy trailing the conduct of the recent promotion examination for directors to become permanent secretaries.

    The CSO described the promotion examination as unconstitutional.

    In a report, CPA said: “This controversy over the promotion examination conducted by the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), currently headed by Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has attracted the attention of many stakeholders and concerned citizens that the recent examination for the promotion of directors to the prestigious position of permanent secretaries has been marred by allegations of bias and manipulations.”

    A statement by its Director of Public Governance Monitoring, Nuhu Adams, alleged that the process was marred by controversies.

    It added: “We followed the recently concluded promotion examination from directorship cadre to permanent secretary rank and discovered it was marred with huge controversies that call for total cancellation and review of the entire process.

    “It will be recalled that 85 directors from five states of the federation and two geo-political zones, namely the Northcentral and the Northeast, sat for promotion examination on November 6, 2023, with results released on November 7, 2023.

    “It was reliably gathered that long before this exercise, there had been complaints about the composition of the Examination Committee, allegedly comprising mainly those known as the Head of Service’s allies.”

    The statement claimed that the controversy surrounding the promotion examination had raised huge concerns.

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    It said Dr. Yemi-Esan, whose office conducted the exercise, needed to explain what happened during the conduct of the promotion examination.

    Stakeholders, including senior civil servants, have urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to cancel the examination and appoint permanent secretaries.

    They said such a step could be taken, as done in the appointment of ambassadors and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), in line with Section 17(1)(2) of the Constitution.

    They wondered how only 20 out of the 85 directors initially invited to sit for the promotion examination scaled through the exercise.

    “Furthermore, to ensure transparency and fairness, it may be prudent to involve external bodies or agencies in the investigation. This would help dispel any concerns about a conflict of interest and guarantee an unbiased scrutiny of the allegations,” CPA said.

    No official in the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation was willing to comment on the development.

  • Dinner for promotion

    (The Furanization of Nigeria)

    To Abolujopon, a shanty town on the outskirts of Ebute-Manuwa, for a lively but disorderly interactive session with a group calling itself Movement Against Internal Recolonization Of Nigeria. It was on the propriety or otherwise of General Buhari hosting the Acting Chief Justice of the federation to Ramadan fastbreak.

    Like everything else, the issue of state dinner with serving justices has polarized the entire nation down the line.   When the matter broke, yours sincerely decided to add a satirical addendum, deploying Wole Soyinka’s famous early homage to stomach infrastructure titled Salutation to the Guts. But after the Supreme Court evacuated the entire Zamfara ruling class from its lofty perch sending the entire APC machinery into a tailspin, yours sincerely changed the gloss to Salutation to Supreme Guts.

    When the matter first broke, Okon had laughed it to scorn, dismissing the whole brouhaha as a mere storm in a tea cup. Snooper had thought that Okon was hinting at a historic, record-breaking tea drinking affair in London involving a notable Nigerian ruler. Up till this moment nobody is sure whether the whole thing was an early window on fake news or a masterpiece of pure mischief.

    But it turned out that water must find its own level and Okon’s imagination remained at the level of Secondary School mischief.

    “Oga, dis matter dey remind man of dem book we dey read for School Cert. Him title be Dinner for Promotion”, the mad boy scoffed.

    But Baba Lekki, the old legal contrarian, was having none of that nonsense this hazy, dewy morning at Abolujopon. He had dusted up his legal notebooks and historic records of state dinners in adverse circumstances. For his opening citation, the old codger relied on Justice Conrad IdowuTaylor’s famous recusal of himself from a state dinner on the grounds that he was about to play host to the same state in a pending suit. The old man had hardly finished when a crusty middle-aged crank, an absconded finalist at Holborn Inn, exploded.

    “The law is an ass and so is the last speaker. It is the prerogative of the state to invite anybody to dinner. Period”, the crank thundered. The thunderous applause almost brought the whole roof down.  Okon was flustered by this sharp-tongued deflation of his hero.

    Haba, yeye Railway Line lawyer. Wetin Baba come do now? I don tell una say na dinner for promotion. Dem man promote him man and he come giam better mala food. So wetin concern Orile Agege lawyer for dat?” the crazy boy screamed.

    “Okon, na poverty drive Yoruba drummer go Sabo”, one man grunted.

    “In fact, which kind food dem come chop sef? Dem mala no dey chop wuruwuru Yoruba food”, one man from Auchi demanded.

    “Na fura de nunu”, the first man answered.

    “Ha. Ha, no be dat dem Owu man dey call furanization of Nigeria?” a crazy man from a nearby mental home who had been infiltrated into the crowd by security people screamed and started attacking everybody in sight.

  • Exemplary promotion

    •Ogun’s enviable example of commitment to equality of citizens regardless of circumstances of birth

    Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s swearing-in of Mr. Andrew Elijah Akinyemi as a permanent secretary in Ogun State’s Civil Service is an exemplary action in furtherance of a major aspect of the United Nations Convention for Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). The appointment illustrates the government’s support for inclusiveness in appointment and promotion of persons with disability. And Amosun’s words at the event, “We have considered you among those who have diligently served the state and that is why we are honouring you with this… In Ogun State, it does not matter if you are physically challenged or not, what matters is dedication, diligence and selfless service to the state” puts flesh on the principle of equality of citizens regardless of circumstances of birth.

    The appointment of a visually impaired civil servant, who had risen to the position of director of special needs in the ministry of education, science and technology, to the highest professional position in Ogun State public service should be good news and worthy lesson to citizens with any form of physical or mental impairment. The action exemplifies that hard work pays and should pay for people with disability, as much as it does for those without such limitation. Both Mr. Amosun and Mr. Akinyemi deserve commendation. What is remarkable about the appointment is that Akinyemi must have joined and grown in Ogun State Civil Service long before Nigeria’s ratification of the UNCRPD.

    UNCRPD was established in 2006, and Nigeria signed and ratified it in 2007 and 2010, respectively, a time that Adeyemi was already moving up the professional ladder like his counterparts without any disadvantage.

    However, the culture of tolerance and respect for the humanity of persons with physical and mental impairment and acceptance of equality of opportunities for all citizens is better than recognition of hard work of a few individuals. It calls for commitment to create and implement social policies that can facilitate efforts by persons with disability to thrive in public and private life. Many of the other priority areas of CRPD need to stimulate new social policies across the federation. More specifically, the provision to significantly raise the share of persons with disabilities working in the labour market; combating discrimination based on disability; and promoting inclusiveness in tenure-specific and lifelong learning and training do need further attention of government at all levels.

    As the private sector becomes the largest employer, it is necessary for the government to emphasise its importance in the promotion of equality of opportunity for employment to people with impairment. It is common knowledge that persons with disability are prone to experience poverty at a higher rate than other citizens. They thus require more immediate assistance than others. For example, new policies, such as social security allowance should give more attention to persons with disability. Furthermore, many government offices without proper access for people with impairment ought to be provided such access across the federation.

    Both Governor Amosun and Mr. Adeyemi have acted as good ambassadors for global commitment to equality of citizens. Not only has Ogun State given equality of opportunities a chance by employing persons with disability, Mr. Akinyemi too has worked hard to deserve his promotion. The new permanent secretary did not allow his impairment to limit his aspirations while the governor has not looked for any excuse not to give him his due.

    To prevent Mr. Akinyemi’s promotion from becoming a singular act, the federal, state and local governments, as well as the organised private sector should commit more aggressively to providing more assistive services to guarantee that persons with disability enjoy full rights of citizenship.

  • Disquiet in Immigration over alleged lopsided promotion

    Disquiet in Immigration over alleged lopsided promotion

    Officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) are planning protests to register their grievances over alleged lopsided promotion.

    Over 5,000 officers were promoted by the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board in batches from late last year to January.

    Thousands of officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Immigration (ASI) sat for the promotion examination last August.

    But the officers are agitated, alleging that some of the lists were doctored to favour many candidates by the NIS headquarters based on ethnicity, religion, and personal connections, among others.

    They argued that the headquarters deliberately left out state of origin and date of last promotion of the newly promoted officers in the lists to cover ialleged fraud. They explained that the rule guiding promotion states that those with earlier last promotion dates are given priority over those last promoted at later dates.

    Columns for date of last promotion and state of origin were missing in a copy of the promotion list obtained by The Nation.

    The list was signed by the Acting Director/Secretary of the board, Onuh J. Y.  dated January 18, and addressed to the Comptroller General of NIS.

    Another letter from the NIS Headquarters dated January 19 and signed by Y. D. Inusa, the Deputy Comptroller General of Immigration (HRM) on behalf of the Comptroller General, conveyed the same mesaage.

    In the list, the Assistant Comptroller of Immigration (ACI) rank was dominated by candidates from the North.

    Immigrations Public Relations Officer (PRO) Sunday James last night said: “I have not seen the petition, so how do I react?”

    I am not a member of the promotion committee. If I need to react I must see the content of what I am reacting to. It is what I know that I will talk about.”

  • Kwara SUBEB to pay promotion arrears

    Kwara SUBEB to pay promotion arrears

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has directed the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to release promotion letters to primary and junior secondary school teachers.

    A statement by his media aide, Muyideen Akorede, said Ahmed gave the directive at a meeting with officials of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in his office.

    The governor announced that he will make SUBEB a first-line charge to prioritise teachers’ salary.

    This must, however, be implemented without hampering the capacity of councils to pay workers and pensioners.

    He attributed the delay to the drop in federal allocation, saying he might incorporate Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers into the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) after reviewing the cost implications.

    The governor reiterated that the government is working on other strategies to address teachers’ arrears, and urged the teachers to shelve their proposed strike.

  • Workers, FHA management disagree over promotion, staff welfare

    Workers, FHA management disagree over promotion, staff welfare

    Staff of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) under the auspices if the Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government Owned Companies has began a three day warning strike over what they described as refusal of the management of the establishment to effect the promotion of deserving workers since 2011 and implementing policies that are anti workers.

    But the management of the establishment said there was no basis for the strike action as the demands by the workers have been largely met, while the remaining potion of their demand require ministerial approval which it is waiting to secure.

    Addressing newsmen at the commencement of the action in Abuja, General Secretary of the Union, Comrade Ayo Olorunfemi said the workers had no other choice but to embark on the warning strike after series of notices to the management without sincere response.

    He accused the management of refusing to conduct promotion exercise since 2011 for deserving officers, adding that a lot of officers of the agency who retired from service have been  because of the stagnation created in the system.

    The union also accused government of deliberately denying workers in the agency from rising above certain level, while using allocating positions that should be occupied by career civil servants to political appointees, pointing out that retired workers of the agency have been employed to fill positions that should be occupied by those in service.

    They also accused the management of non payment of outstanding housing allowances to staff on grade levels 14 and above, refusal to remit statutory deductions from the salary of staff to the National Health Insurance Scheme and the National Housing Fund thereby denying them access to health care and housing.

    He also said that the management of the agency has also not remitted tax deductions from workers salaries to the appropriate agency of government thereby denying them tax clearance.

    Reacting to the allegations, Managing Director of the FHA, Prof. Mohammed Al-Amin said the agency has set in motion machinery to ensure that the position of a General Manager is occupied by civil servants and not political appointees.

    He explained that the reposition of the agency before his assumption of office removed it from government budget and slated it for privatization, adding that on assumption of office, he advices the government against outright sale of the place.

  • Akeredolu okays promotion

    Akeredolu okays promotion

    Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu yesterday approved promotion for civil servants.

    He directed the Head of Service (HoS), Mr. Toyin Akinkuotu, to put machinery in motion to implement the directive.

    Akeredolu spoke during the swearing-in of 16 permanent secretaries at the International Culture and Event Centre in Akure, the capital.

    The governor said no worker under his watch would be denied promotion and other privileges.

    He said the permanent secretaries were elevated on merit, contrary to insinuations and snide comments since the announcement.

    Akeredolu said: “All fair-minded persons applauded this exercise because of the simple reason that nobody was allowed to peddle influence.

    “The criteria set for the appointments were seniority, efficiency and equity. We are not unaware of the legitimate aspirations of some officers where there are no vacancies.

    “It will, therefore, be unfair to force any serving officer out of service, prematurely, because of the ambition of certain persons. If this was the practice in the past, this administration has no apology to offer to anyone for treading the path of equity and justice.”

    Akeredolu urged the new appointees to use their positions to redirect what he called the warped thinking that government’s business is a veritable platform to accumulate wealth.

    He said: “You must encourage and recommend, for reward, virtuous deeds of dedicated subordinates. You must avoid pettiness in dealing with them.

    “Unless you use your good offices, and more importantly, conduct, to mobilise your subordinates for effective service delivery, this exercise should be considered, rightly, as misplaced.”

    The governor warned that his administration will sanction erring public servants.

    Akeredolu advised civil servants to change their attitude to enable the government achieve quality service delivery to the people.

    The governor urged them not to treat whatever belongs to the government with contempt.

    He said: “The state’s bureaucracy must be responsive and proactive. Those who expect so much from the government must be ready to put in their best. All ministries, departments and agencies must be accountable.”

  • Over 400 DDs petition Buhari, NA over alleged promotion denial

    No fewer that 400 serving Deputy Directors in the Federal Civil Service have petitioned the Presidency and the National Assembly, alleging that they have been denied promotion to the next rank.

    The aggrieved officials, under the aegis of Concerned Deputy Directors, (Administration), solicited the intervention of relevant bodies in getting their entitlements paid.

    The union, in a protest letter to the Presidency, the National Assembly, Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) and the Secretary, Council of Retired Federal Permanent Secretaries (CORFEPS), said the “Deputy Directors (Administration)  were promoted last in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and are matured to be considered for promotion to the post of Directors (Administration) in years 2015, 2016 and 2017. But have not been given the opportunity to sit for the examination,” they wrote.

    The affected public servants, who denied knowledge of the litigation filed by six petitioners, who dragged the Head of Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Civil Service Commission before the National Industrial Court, Abuja, noted that most of the aggrieved officers have retired from the Federal Civil Service.

    Deputy Director, Press, in the Federal Civil Service Commission, Dr. Joel Oruche, confirmed the development. He said the matter was before a court of competent jurisdiction and that he could not comment on it.

  • Workers vow to tackle govt over promotion arrears

    Frustrated by the Federal Government’s unfulfilled promises to pay promotion arrears, outstanding salaries, and allowances owed federal officers,  the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has resolved to shut government’s agencies, if the debts are not paid on or before,  September 18.

    In a statement in Lagos, the association’s Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, said the union regretted that, for more than two years, the Federal Government had been promising to pay federal officers their outstanding entitlements.

    “It is rather unfortunate that the same Federal Government that has given state governments bailouts up to three times to settle the entitlements owed their workers, takes delight in punishing its own employees by denying them their legitimate benefits,” the union stated.

    According to ASCSN, the debts owed by the Federal Government include outstanding salaries, promotion arrears, first 28 days allowance on transfer from post, mandatory training allowance of OHCSF 2010, repatriation allowances, burial expenses, and death benefits.

    It recalled that the union had written several letters to the Presidency to settle the debts owed federal officers, but the government has been dilly dallying.

    “Although the Federal Government had issued two different circulars directing the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) to compile the names of their staff that are affected which they did, yet, no payment was made.

    “Even when the government directed the Budget Office to raise virement last year for the payment of the outstanding entitlements, there was no cash backing until the virement lapsed,” the Union lamented.

    It said two months ago, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment informed the union that N10 billion had been earmarked to kick- start the payment, but nothing has happened.

    The union emphasised that the patience of the workers has been exhausted on the matter and that if not for the trade union skills being employed by the leadership of the association, the entire federal public service would have been engulfed by strike.

    “Workers have come to agree that the Federal Government is not in any way serious about paying them their outstanding entitlements.

    “In view of the foregoing, the ASCSN has given the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum with effect from September 8, 2017 within which to settle all the debts owed federal officers failing which a three-day warning strike will start in all the federal MDA’s throughout the country,” the Union said.

    It urged prominent citizens, monarchs, religious leaders and other stakeholders to prevail on the Federal Government to pay the debts owed federal officers.

     

    and not wait until the strike action starts before they begin to plead with the Union to call it off.

  • Fed Govt to begin payment of workers’ salary, promotion arrears next week

    Fed Govt to begin payment of workers’ salary, promotion arrears next week

    THE Federal Government is to begin payment of salary, promotion arrears and other entitlements of civil servants on Wednesday.

        It was aimed at averting further strike.

    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 said the union has agreed to temporarily suspend the strike till Wednesday, its President, Bobboi Kaigama, said the union was only being proactive.

    He declared that if the government fails to begin 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 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 September 8, 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, September 18, 2017, the Minister of Labour and Employment convened a conciliatory meeting on Tuesday, September 12, 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 September 20, 2017.”

    The meeting also agreed that a seven-man committee to be chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment composed of three members from the association and three from government side to midwife, fine-tune and monitor the implementation of these decisions.

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