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By Bimbola Oyesola & Chukwuma Umeorah
As the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants in Nigeria, Tommy Okon does not pretend on what the incoming government should do for the workers, which is giving priority to the interest of workers.
According to him workers create wealth to advance development of the nation.
He also wants the government to put an end to subsidy payment, which he said is a pathway for corruption for the politicians.
The Association of Senior Civil Servant of Nigeria (ASCSN)’ president gives clearance on the 40 percent increase from government, noting that it was not a salary increase but a ‘pure allowance’ already being enjoyed by other agencies of government.
He speaks further on security, community policing and other issues of national interest.
Excerpts:
Past one year
Over the last one year, I can say that it has not been rosy for Nigerian workers especially given the mirage of socio-economic challenges that workers have faced. The salary remained static especially for those in the core civil service who have had to survive with the minimum wage of N30,000.
Even with the N30,000, some state governors were recalcitrant about the payment. This made it very difficult for the workers to raise money to take care of their family and meet other social needs.
The insecurity in the land also added serious injuries to the psychology of the workers because they are not guaranteed of their safety whether on the road, in the market, in their houses or anywhere else.
The operational environment was equally very harsh, you see about 15 workers in the same office, how healthy can it be for productivity. The past one year has been a mixed feeling and a bit challenging.
However, let me say that in the past few weeks, we have had some relief. Workers in the core civil service, at least for those working under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS) have seen what I call the Buhari alert. I mean the 40 percent Peculiar Allowance.
It was not a salary increment or pay rise as some people insinuate, it is pure allowance. This is because other sectors and other government agencies have been enjoying it quietly. But because this particular one involves the civil servants, everyone seems to be talking about it. Some have even misinformed the public that it is a pay rise.
40 percent peculiar allowance
When the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) led the CWC members to meet with the president last year, it was discovered that there was a lot of gap between other agencies of government and the core civil servants in terms of the pay package. The government decided to set up presidential committee on harmonization to bridge that gap. And you know that government business is a process, you cannot just start and end immediately. Several committees need to be set up to look at the pros and cons and the cost of a policy before it is implemented.
The pay rise however is encouraging to us as workers and to us as leaders of the trade union movement. We are hopeful that the new administration would learn from this so that when we go into the negotiation of pay rise next year, we would be able to reach a positive resolution.
States paying the 40 percent increase
This money has been budgeted and is in service wide vote. So there is no reason to say that they do not have money to pay. As we speak, even the arrears of January have been paid. We give credence to it and commend the president and the presidential committee on harmonization for that graciousness.
Agenda for incoming government
One thing is to set agenda and make promises, another is to implement them. Setting agenda for the incoming government is like trying to tell them what you know they may do or not do. They came in with their manifesto and what a wise government would do is to take a look at the manifesto and develop a working plan for the implementation of the manifesto. This is because most of the manifestos are written by experts who would not be the ones to implement it.
For us in the trade union movement, we look at what you have for the workers and the economy because if it is well with the economy, it is well with the workers, and vice versa since labour creates wealth.
Labour plays a central role across every sector. They are the engine that drives whatever policy is needed. For this, workers interests have to been taken seriously by the next administration.
In addition, the offspring of the workers must benefit in terms of free and compulsory education. Because when there is free education for the offspring of any worker, you have given that worker the opportunity to become more productive.
This is because he would not be bothered on how to raise money for his children’s education.
The government must also pay attention to the economy especially the productive economy and do all it takes to stem insecurity because every ethnic militia needs to come together and down their weapons for enduring peace. The incoming government must not be sectional in addressing issues or just paying lip service to security matters. This is because wherever there is security of life and properties, there will be economic prosperity.
In the area of infrastructure, the government needs to come up with a policy that enforces government on continuity of infrastructure development. In most cases you discover that some government when they come would abandon the project of previous government and start a new one.
When there is continuity and sustenance in infrastructural development, Nigeria would develop faster.
Nigerians are not asking for too much. Tame insecurity and provide them with the basic needs. Nigerians are very hardworking and productive people, give them what they need and the informal economy would boom. Provide them with security and they would go to the farm, produce and create a market for themselves. Provide education, so many would go to school because they know the importance. Provide them with good hospitals, and there would be lots of medical breakthrough. Not a situation where you build health facility in local communities without doctors because they are poorly paid and you cannot ensure their safety.
In the area of policy formation, the governments should avoid policies that are alien to our culture. Some policies that work in other climes may not work in Nigeria because we have different culture.
One example is the controversial bill that wanted to stop doctors from travelling outside the country. How can you beat a child and ask him not to cry. Someone who have invested close to 12 years to be trained, graduated, and cannot find a job or is poorly paid gets an opportunity abroad, you cannot ask that person not to leave.
Another is the recent naira policy that brought the economy to standstill because of lack of cash flow. Nigeria is not ripe for cashless policy yet.
Government cannot give jobs to everybody, what they need to do is to create an enabling environment and a lot of people would be gainfully employed.
Security
Security is local, no matter how you look at it. That is why we are talking about state policing. After that, we can start talking about local government and community policing. In every domain, the people there know themselves, and when they notice a visitor, they ask questions and when something goes wrong, you know whom to hold responsible.
The government needs to look inwards regarding the issue of security. There is need to review the Act that established the Nigeria Police Force to accommodate community and state policing.
The notion that governors would use it for elections is a mere dissonance. It is like saying people should not use cars because of the fear of accidents. We should not consider only the medium-term disadvantage and kill a good policy.
Impact as ASCSN president
When I came on the saddle, I was able to organize our CWC members to meet with Mr. president and also we have been able to gain the strength and support of our members. They have confidence in our leadership.
We have secured a good duty tour allowance, which is a commendable improvement from the past. We have also built a very strong labour management relationship with the government. As you can see, for over the years, the core civil servants have not gone on any strike. We were able to secure the 40 percent peculiar allowance and we are fighting hard to ensure the restoration of gratuity because since 2004 where the Contributing Pension Act (CPA) came in to force during the Obasanjo’s administration, the civil servants have been denied.
Gratuity is a constitutional matter. We have put our position paper, the Joint council have considered, even the Pension Commission have also accepted the fact that the 2004 contribution pension Act did not stop the payment of gratuity to civil servants who have attained the 35 years in service or 60 years of age.
Today, the head of service is doing well in the area of digitalization of the service. These are products of which I call constructive engagement because one thing is to criticize government, another thing is to suggest ways which they can do things right. That is what the ASCSN have done.
As the president, I am very happy that a lot of the positive developmental issues are happening during my time.
Pension and remittance
Any state government that does not pay pension is worse than terrorists are. For a worker to have attained 35 years of service or 60 years deserves his pay, so any governor that feels that worker is not entitled to his pension can simply be described as man’s inhumanity to man. Our position is that they should desist from such dastard act. That is why in the last elections, the workers voted out state governors who do not have worker’s interests at heart.
Subsidy removal
Personally, subsidy is a scam because if we cannot ascertain how many litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) that Nigerians consume daily, how would you determine how much you are going to put in the budget for subsidy. It was on the same issue that the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) was established by the military, the sitting president was incharge, and they said that the proceeds would be used for roads and support. They have been talking about subsidy since I was a child. Why don’t they remove the subsidy completely so that we would not have any government use it as a channel for looting money. That is why some greedy elements in the government have deliberately reduced our local refineries to nothing.
We have heard of situation of siphoning of our petroleum products into neighboring countries, how is that even supposed to be possible when we have security agencies manning the borders. They should remove the subsidy and the money should be used to pay workers living wages as well as to develop other areas of the economy where every Nigerian would benefit.
Make education free and compulsory at least to university level, build standard health facilities to end medical tourism, build the roads for easy transportation and several others.
Besides things are costly already so even if the subsidy is removed Nigerians would survive and the money can be used to develop other areas of the economy.
