We’re not slaves, pay outstanding wage award, workers fire back

President Bola Tinubu has declared that government employees, who have relocated abroad but still drawing salaries without formal resignation, must make refunds to the administration’s coffers.

Tinubu also vowed to ensure that the supervisors under whose watch such emigrant civil servants fraudulently draw salaries, even while sojourning abroad, were made to make restitutions and suffer the vicarious punishment for dereliction of duty.

But federal workers, under the auspices of the Federal Workers Forum (FWF), over the weekend, asked the Federal Government to pay their outstanding three-month wage awards, since they are not slaves.

The President spoke at the 2024 Civil Service Award and Gala Night, the climax of the week-long 2024 Civil Service Week in Abuja, on Saturday, where he declared that “to whom much is given, much is also expected, to make the country a better place.”

This came two weeks after Vice President Kashim Shettima appealed to Nigerians to resist the ‘Japa syndrome’ and join hands with the Tinubu administration in the ongoing efforts to salvage the nation.

Shettima spoke when the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) led by its newly-elected President, Prof. Bala Audu, paid him a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He cautioned against the recent surge in emigration, a phenomenon colloquially referred to in local parlance as ‘Japa.’

At the event, Tinubu said, “During my recent visit to South Africa, I kept abreast of the week’s activities and was particularly struck by the revelations shared by the Head of the Civil Service, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, regarding employees who relocated abroad while drawing salaries without formally resigning.

“It is heartening to hear that measures have been taken to address this issue, but we must ensure those responsible are held accountable and restitution is made.”

The culprits must be made to refund the money they fraudulently collected. Their supervisors and department heads must also be punished for aiding and abetting the fraud under their watch.”

According to the President, the civil service cannot just be a workplace where ‘anything is possible’, where workers violate rules without the fear of punishment or repercussion.

“The civil service of any nation is too important for such misconduct to take root or be tolerated. Those who say that a nation is as good as its civil service are close to the truth. You are the real establishment that remains to pilot government affairs as we politicians come and go.

“Over the decades, successive governments initiated various national development plans and programmes, and all relied on the civil service to translate such plans into high-impact programmes and projects across all sectors of the nation’s economy. We look to you to continue this legacy under our administration.”

He commended the dedication of the head of the civil service for steering the reforms aimed at creating a world-class service that upholds meritocracy and excellence.

Tinubu also tasked ministers, permanent secretaries and chief executives to make haste in implementing the reforms within their respective ministries, while demanding urgency in the delivery on the Renewed Hope Agenda without compromising due process.

THE federal workers made the declaration during an online meeting on Saturday, appealing to the government to pay their wage awards for March, April and May.

The government introduced a wage award for workers after the subsidy was removed from Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting signed by the National Coordinator, Andrew Emelieze, the federal workers emphasised that they were not slaves.

The communiqué reads: “It has been nearly four months since the Federal Government stopped the payment of wage awards to federal workers. Despite repeated pleas to the Federal Government to resume the payment, all efforts have fallen on deaf ears.

“The Federal Government workers met online to critically review our last request to the government to pay the outstanding March, April and May wage awards, among other things. It was generally agreed that the government is pretending not to know that we, the federal workers, are experiencing unimaginable hardship since the removal of the fuel subsidy.”

Therefore, they resolved to embark on continuous peaceful protests and demonstrations in all Federal Government secretariats nationwide from June 24, 2024.

“We call for the support and solidarity of all industrial unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union congress (TUC) as we, the federal workers, embark on this marathon session of peaceful protests and demonstrations across the federation. We condemn the idea of retired federal workers waiting for over a year before receiving their pensions and gratuities.

“We urge federal workers to be armed with the fact that protest is a fundamental human right, and any federal worker who decides to dodge this collective agreement is a traitor. We are citizens, not slaves. Enough of this exploitation of the vulnerable! The government has cheated us enough. Pay us what you owe us. We have worked for it; we are not beggars,” the workers added.