BUHARI RECALLS RETIRED PERM SECS, DIRECTORS FROM NORTH, PLANS MASS SACK OF SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS FROM THE SOUTH
…. Retired Director who served mandatory 35yrs resume as assistant director
In tandem with what is perceived to be President Mohammadu Buhari’s
chronic cronyism, the President has secretly ordered a recall of a large
chunk of retired permanent secretaries and directors in the federal civil
service from the core north and promoted those who failed the civil
service exams, Pointblanknews.com has learnt.
Buhari had made no pretense concerning the section he favored for key,
juicy appointments. Aside from the ministerial appointments which spread
is guaranteed by the constitution, Buhari has told all who cared, he is
comfortable with those from his section of the country
All his key staff at the Villa, SGF, Defence chiefs, are al from the
north. And recently no fewer than 20 very senior police officers had to be
retired to give way for the Police boss.
Presently, the Buhari led federal government has embarked on a secret,
massive recruitment of candidates from the North who have diploma
certificates (ND) and National Certificate of Education (NCE) to occupy
the position of degree holders in ministries and parastatals leaving out
thousands of most qualified candidates from other parts of the country.
President Buhari penultimate week suspended the eight-year tenure for top
civil servants in the public service paving the way for a mass return of
retired northern civil servants.
But his decision drew the ire of the organized labour who said that the
abolition of the tenure of office for civil servants would destroy the
cherished norm in the public service if not checked.
One of the most astonishing cases is that of Mrs. Nana Sokwa from Bauchi
State, who served the mandatory 35 years in the civil service of the
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and retired two years ago.
Pointblanknews.com gathered that she has been recalled, and has resumed as
an assistant director in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of
the Federation (OHCSF).
Most of those being recruited are from the North-west and North-east
geopolitical zones.
Pointblanknews.com investigations also reveal that two permanent
secretaries who were known to have repeatedly failed promotion exams as
directors were appointed permanent secretaries and assigned to ministries.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum, Hajia Binta Bello and the
Permanent Secretary Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Mamoud Isah Duste both
failed several promotion exams but were made Permanent Secretaries on the
directives of President Buhari, sources told Pointblanknews.com
A source who spoke to pointblanknews.com about Mrs. Sokwa said “She
claimed that she was in the first place seconded to FCTA from the OHCSF.
But she served her tenure under the eight-year tenure for top civil
servants (Permanent secretaries and directors) and served mandatory 35
years. The ridiculous thing is that she has gone back to office of the
Head of Service to resume as assistant director. Isn’t that by all
standards a criminal offence?
“The implication is that she has gone back there to sit on some people’s
progression in the service. She is now expected to serve another 12 years
to get to the position of director again and probably become perm sec and
serve like eight years that will come to like 20 years. So automatically,
she is starting all over again and would have spent 55 years in service
usurping other people’s positions.” said our source
The source added “This practice is not new. Some civil servants from the
core north have worked in the civil service by hook or crook until they
are almost 80 years, the reason the eight-year tenure was introduced by
the late President Yar’Ádua administration. There are thousands of cases
of people who are recruited as level 8 officers, they may not even have
degrees, from say Bauchi and promoted to level 12 and sent to Abuja”
“While this is going on, his colleagues from the South are still on level
8. Before you know it they are close to directors and this is why all the
ministries, parastatals, sports associations and virtually anything called
federal government owned federal establishment is headed by Hausa/Fulani
people.
“There are cases of people who got to the position of permanent
secretaries and retired with NCE certificate which in most cases were
forged.
“The bad news is that a list of senior civil servants from the south are
being compiled with a view to sending them packing from the service”, the
source told Pointblanknews.com
National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria
(ASCSN), Bob¬boi Bala Kaigama and the Secretary-General, Alade Bashir
Lawal, had alerted the public that the persistent policy somer¬saults by
the present government if not put in check would destroy the age long
civil service.
The union recalled that few months ago, the Federal Government for
inex-plicable reasons, elected to recruit non-serving officers as
Permanent Secretar-ies some of whom were above 60 years of age in flagrant
violation of the Public Service Rules (PSR).
“This is in a situation where there are highly skilled, educated, and
knowledge-able civil servants who should have been elevated to these
exalted positions.
“All appeals by this Union to the gov¬ernment to reverse the appointments
and promote senior civil servants who have served the nation meritoriously
for decades to the posts of Permanent Sec¬retaries were treated with
contempt,” Kaigama said.
He said the Union wondered if by this abolition of tenure, all Permanent
Secre-taries and Directors who were supposed to retire now have had their
tenure ex-tended.
Kaigama noted that in February this year, a Permanent Secretary in the
Fed¬eral Ministry of Petroleum Resource, who retired same month, had her
service extended to February 2017 while other Permanent Secretaries
exited.
“What all this boils down to is the continuation of the culture of
impunity that characterized the last Federal Ad¬ministration. For how can
you run a sys¬tem where rules are breached without qualms,” he queried.
“What is more worrisome about all this is the perception that government
can do anything it likes without consult¬ing the stakeholders. This is
wrong in a democracy where all views and per¬spectives on major Government
policies should be subjected to vigorous intellec¬tual discussion before
pronouncement and implementation.
“This is why the government should start now to engage workers
representa-tives and other stakeholders in various sectors of the economy
before imple-menting any policy that affects the Nige¬rian people. After
all, we are supposed to be running a democracy where construc¬tive dialogue is central to policy formula¬tion and implementation,” Kaigama said.
He, therefore, urged the government to put the implementation of the
tenure abolition system on hold and summon a meeting of strategic
stakeholders to re¬view the policy.
He said the consistent policy somersaults had continued to generate
intense restiveness among public servants and that the situation should
not be allowed to deteriorate further.
