“Since civil service is the engine room of policy formulation and implementation, government is therefore poised to ensure pleasant conditions of service for civil servants,” Mr. Ngige said when the Joint In-House Unions of his Ministry led by its Chairman Comrade Tommy Etim Okon visited his Abuja office.
The Federal senior civil servants had threatened to go on strike over unpaid salary arrears and had appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct immediate payment of their backlog of salaries and allowances.
The workers said their patience had been overstretched. Under the umbrella of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, the workers said the current state of affairs in the country, where sufferings had been lifted to a frightening level, was the time to settle the arrears to calm all frayed nerves and restore normalcy in the system as reported by Vanguard.
Speaking ASCSN National Delegates Conference, NDC, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, outgoing President of the body, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, said: “You will recall that in one of our correspondences to President Buhari before his inauguration, we did set out an agenda for him towards moving the nation forward.
“One of the items on the agenda is the settlement of all outstanding salaries and allowances owed workers throughout the federation. When the issue of bailout was, therefore, announced by the government, we heaved a sigh of relief thinking the arrangement will cover public officers in the various Ministries Departments and Agencies, MDAs, both at the federal and state levels.”
But the minister tried to calm them down with other promises, saying that capacity building will be accorded priority as the 2016 budget contains provisions for training and re-training programmes.
He said “welfare packages and other entitlements like repatriation, 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, transportation and other benefits of staff including all entitlements of both retired and officers who died in the active service will be settled accordingly,” his office said in a statement signed by Samuel Olowookere, a Deputy Director in charge of public information.