The Presidency on Tuesday claimed
that when President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015, he met a plan for
the retrenchment of thousands of workers by former President Goodluck
Jonathan’s administration.
Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the basis of the planned
retrenchment was that the civil service was over bloated and the payment of
salaries was giving the past administration trouble.
“The plan was put on for the
elections,” the presidential spokesman stated in a statement.
“You recall that when he was
presented with the interim report of the Ahmed Joda-led transition committee,
the President-elect was shown a document in which 23 states had not paid their
workers, in one or two cases for up to 12 months. He said this was a national
emergency and would be treated as such.
“No retrenchment, he ordered, and
charged everyone to go and pay them. When the economic recession deepened and
the banks and oil companies began to retrench, he asked the Minister of Labour
and Employment to stop it. If anyone refused to make a sacrifice as others were
doing, they should be sanctioned.
“To ease the tight liquidity
situation in which the states were, he gave bailout loans through the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), specifically asking them to pay workers and pensioners.
In 2015, a Salary loan of about N338bn was disbursed to the states. He gave
approval to the CBN to extend the repayment periods of their other loans so
that they could have more money that they can use to take care of their
workers.
“Similarly, the huge, unpaid
refunds due to the states from the Paris and London Club settlements for which
the federal government overcharged the other two tiers of government that had
remained unpaid since the Obasanjo years have been given an attention.
“So far, two tranches, making
about 50 per cent have so far been returned to them. In sum total, N1.75tn has
been given to states as extra-statutory allocation known as bailout since the
advent of President Buhari’s administration”.
He noted that Buhari had also
been paying attention to the accumulated problems of outstanding allowances,
promotion allowances and earned-allowances “which have pitched unions in
various sectors against the government. These are problems dating back to the
years of the PDP administration.”
Shehu said N3 billion had been
paid and that another eight billion was on the way.
According to him, in the
forthcoming payments, “government is particularly interested in alleviating the
problems of ASUU and NASU staff in universities that refused to join the last
strike action, and for which their mother unions excluded their members from
the lists they submitted for payment.
“Similarly, government
appropriated N30 billion in 2017 and more will be paid under the 2018
appropriation for offsetting the backlog of promotion allowances; hazard and
call duty allowances and so forth. In all cases, government has given
instructions that allowances be paid directly into the personal accounts of
beneficiaries, to avoid past practices of diversion of funds by ministries.
“To ease the housing problems of
workers, the administration has set up the Federal Integrated Staff Housing
(FISH), by which civil servants have started owning houses categorized as One
Bedroom, for between N3-5 million; Two Bedroom, for N5-10 million; Three
Bedroom for N9-15 million and Four Bedroom between N13-17million, the latter
designed for public servants. All they are required do is to obtain an
application for N1, 000 and apply. All states of the Federation are to benefit
from this scheme.
“The Minister of Labour and
Employment, Chris Ngige has started commissioning these houses that have been
completed in places like Kubwa and Lugbe in the FCT. Nasarawa, Cross River,
Gombe and Lagos States are to follow.
“There is also an on-going
Federal Mass Housing Scheme, in two categories, one by the Ministry of Finance
and the other by the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing. The two schemes are
running at a parallel and have both taken off.
“The issue of the national
minimum wage is now back as a top agenda of the administration. It has entered
its final stages with public hearings held in the six geopolitical zones of the
country between April 23- 30.
“The government has continued to
pay attention to service welfare with promotions being sustained throughout the
public sector. The National Health Insurance Scheme is being reinvigorated and
pensions being streamlined by the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate
(PTAD).
“The public service is being re-injected
with new blood with on-going recruitment exercises in the Immigration, the
police and the three branches of the Armed Forces.
“Nigeria, the largest economy on
the continent cannot be where it is today without the commitment of workers.
The stock market continues to soar, the administration continues to score big
on major rail, road and other infrastructure projects that are unfolding across
the country, all due to the commitment and dedication of Nigerian workers.
“On this day and always, the nation
owes them a lot of gratitude,” Shehu concluded.
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But he didn't sacked anyone at the end, lie lie party, change my foot
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