By Victor Ahiuma-Young, Abuja
Tensions rose in the Federal Capital Territory yesterday as the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) demanded the immediate settlement of long-standing entitlements owed to public servants, warning that government inaction could spark wider unrest.
In a statement issued on Thursday, ASCSN Secretary-General, Joshua Apebo, condemned what he described as the “forceful dispersal” of protesting workers who had gathered at the Ministry of Finance on September 15 to press for payment of their benefits.
“For the past ten years, this union has submitted several memoranda to the Federal Government urging the payment of arrears owed to public service employees,” Apebo said. He listed the entitlements to include salary arrears, promotion arrears, elongation arrears, the first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, duty tour allowance, and allowances for Education Officers displaced from Unity Schools in the North-East.
The union recalled that resolutions passed at successive Annual General Meetings of chairmen of the 110 Federal Unity Schools — including one held in May 2024 in Lagos — were forwarded to the Ministry of Education. It noted that an ultimatum issued in January 2025 demanding implementation of the resolutions had gone unheeded.
ASCSN warned that the frequent storming of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) by aggrieved employees seeking overdue payments was becoming “a great embarrassment to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.” It urged the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation to immediately release funds to settle arrears owed to Education Officers and other civil servants.
The union also lamented the suspension of gratuity payments since 2004, stressing that the Pension Reform Act did not abolish gratuities. “We have consistently written to the Council and the Presidency on the need to restore gratuity payments to public service employees,” Apebo said.
Reaffirming its history of defending workers’ rights — including a seven-week strike and legal battle against the proposed privatisation of Unity Schools under former President Olusegun Obasanjo — ASCSN distanced itself from allegations linking it to any attempt to sabotage operations at the Ministry of Finance.
“With the sacrifices we have made over the years to defend the interests of public servants, no one should associate this union with any act aimed at undermining government business,” the statement declared.
The union called on President Tinubu to personally intervene, insisting that prompt settlement of all outstanding allowances and arrears would calm tempers and restore confidence in the government’s commitment to workers’ welfare.
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