The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria on Monday gave the Federal Government a notice of its intention to embark on a strike any moment from now over the non-payment of December salary and outstanding emoluments to civil servants since July 2013.
The ASCSN, an affiliate of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, in a statement by its Secretary-General, Mr. Alade Lawal, which was obtained by one of our correspondents in Abuja, urged the government to begin the payment of the salary and outstanding emoluments “immediately or face industrial action.”
However, the government said on Monday night that it would investigate the reasons for the delay in payment of the December salary of some civil servants.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said in a statement issued by her Special Adviser on Communications, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, that the investigation followed the protest by ASCSN over the alleged non-payment of some of the workers.
Okonjo-Iweala said the ministry had yet to receive any formal complaint about the delay in salary payment.
The ASCSN called on the TUC, Nigeria Labour Congress, civil society groups, The Patriot, the Nigeria Bar Association and prominent individuals to prevail on the Federal Government to pay the civil servants their salaries as and when due so as to avert disruption of services in the public service a few days after the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities was resolved.
The umbrella union of senior civil servants expressed shock that thousands of federal civil servants were not paid their December salaries.
The association threatened, “We wish to emphasise that if the federal civil servants are not paid their December 2013 salaries and arrears outstanding since July 2013 immediately, the entire Federal Civil Service will be shut down shortly.
“It is difficult to understand why civil servants cannot be paid their paltry salaries in an economy where the political elite are carting away millions of naira monthly as remunerations, while billions in public funds are also being looted without qualms and those involved in the stealing spree are not being brought to book.”
According to Lawal, Okonjo-Iweala owes Nigerians an explanation on what caused the delay.
“It is disheartening that thousands of civil servants employed by the Federal Government were not paid their December 2013 salaries, and so, these workers and their families spent the Christmas under the pain and pang of hunger. What is also clear is that these workers, their children and other dependants will also celebrate the New Year in sadness,” he said.
The ASCSN then called on the Finance minister to “speak out and tell Nigerians why the Federal Government can no longer pay salaries to its employees as and when due.”
Lawal added that it had become necessary for the minister to address the nation on the embarrassing situation because she had continued to say that the country was not broke.
The ASCSN posited that it was bad enough that the Nigerian civil servants were the least paid in sub-Saharan Africa, adding that the fact that thousands of them could no longer be paid their meagre salaries was driving the workers and their trade unions to the wall.
The association requested President Goodluck Jonathan to “step in and order the Finance minister” to pay the civil servants their salaries without further delay and put the necessary machinery in motion to ensure that such an embarrassing situation would no longer repeat itself.
The group posited that the inability of the Federal Government to pay salaries was lending credence to the belief in some quarters that the managers of the public sector of the economy were grossly incompetent.
Copyright PUNCH.
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