The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to increase the salaries and wages of civil servants in line with the current economic realities.
The National President of the Association, Bobboi Kaigama, made the appeal during its National Executive Council meeting held on Tuesday in Kaduna State in Nigeria’s north-west region.
‘No Longer Acceptable’
The meeting, which included the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) also gave opportunity to discuss the need to tackle the high rate of unemployment through revitalisation of agriculture and the manufacturing sector, addressing the issue of corruption among others.
Mr Kaigama while lamenting that the current 18,000 Naira minimum wage of Nigerian workers was nothing to write home about, also maintained that the amount would no longer be acceptable by Nigerian workers.
He urged the Federal Government to quickly enter into negotiation with labour with a view to creating a new salary regime that would be good enough to improve the quality of lives of workers.
The association also expressed concern over the arbitrary and bias way of recruitment of people into the public service by the Federal Civil Service Commission, warning the commission to stop promoting mediocrity and nepotism in the public service through such illegal acts.
They also urged the Federal Government to closely monitor the proper utilisation of the bailout funds that were recently released to some states to ensure that they were used in settling arrears of salary being owed to workers.
The group observed that improving the welfare of civil servants was key to addressing the problem of corruption, as majority of those involved in corrupt practice do so as a result of poor remuneration.
