Sunday Ojeme 
…elects new president, others
The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has commended President Bola Tinubu for signing the N70,000 new minimum wage into law.
The Association, which gave the commendation yesterday in Lagos during its 5th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference, also elected new executive to run its affairs for the next couple of years.
A communique issued at the end of the conference revealed the election of Comrade Shehu Muhammed as the National President to lead 12 other members in the executive.
According to the communique, while Conference-InSession commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for signing the ₦70,000 per month National Minimum Wage Bill, 2024 into law, it, however, enjoined the government to set up a committee to work out the consequential adjustment arising from the new National Minimum Wage Act, 2024 as has always been the practice so that no grade level of workers will be shortchanged. It also called for immediate implementation of the new minimum wage.
It equally implored the state governments to take necessary measures to block wastages and leakages in government expenditure to enable them implement the new National Minimum Wage to improve the standard of living of their citizens, moreso because they have been receiving enhanced funds from the Federal Account Allocation Committee since the removal of fuel subsidy in May, 2023.
On insecurity, it noted that insecurity in different parts of the country had contributed to high cost of living since farmers were prevented from carrying out agricultural activities and accordingly urged the government to take necessary measures to reduce security challenges so that citizens could go about their normal duties without fear or hindrances.
“In view of the recent nationwide protests against high cost of living, the Conference-In-Session posited that while the various tiers of Governments were doing their best to address the issues of hunger, poverty, etc, they needed to do more in the areas of providing social amenities such as potable water, affordable housing and medical care, free education, low electricity tariff, affordable food items, transportation, etc, because if these were readily available, life would become more meaningful for most citizens with the meagre incomes at their disposal.
“The Conference-In-Session noted that since the 2004 Pension Reform Act was enacted, public service employees in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the Federal level were denied gratuity while their counterparts in other Government Agencies such as CBN, NNPC, NCC, NIMASA, NPA, FIRS, etc, as well as those in some state governments and private sector of the economy had continued to receive gratuity in appreciation for services rendered to their organizations. It, therefore, implored the Government to restore payment of gratuity to public service employees that had been denied the benefits in the interest of justice, equity and fairness.
“The Conference-In-Session equally stressed the need to include pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) in the review of pension increases so that they could benefit from such periodic upward review of pension rates like their colleagues who retired under the Defined Benefit Scheme (DBS) in line with the provisions of Section 173 (3) of the 1999 Constitution which stipulates that “pension shall be reviewed every five years or together with any Federal Civil Salary reviews, whichever is earlier,” the communique said.
It also ratified the appointment of Comrade Joshua Apebo as the Secretary-General of the Association in line with Rule 14 (f) (i) of the Constitution of the Union.
