Following the recent approval of President Bola Tinubu for the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission for the FCT Administration, civil servants in the territory have hailed the Minister, Nyesom Wike, and also commended the President Tinubu describing the situation as great relief, joy unspeakable and liberation for FCTA workers.
In an interview with ThisNigeria yesterday, the Chairman of the Joint Union Action Committee, the umbrella workers Union for FCTA and FCDA, Mr Korode Matilukuro, said their joy knows no bounds as it was a great relief from a fight of about 20 years.
Matilukuro said, “The kind of relief we have now is akin to when liberation came after the slave trade. In 2004, the Ministry of Federal Capital Territory, MFCT was abolished and the FCT Administration was established.
“It was since that time we lost our opportunity of becoming permanent secretaries. The career of civil servants in FCT was pegged at Director which is Grade Level 17.
“Over the period, they have been posting permanent secretaries to us, some of them far junior to some of our senior directors. That on its own is anti-productive because when you wake up every morning and what comes to your mind is that you are going to the office to be answerable to your junior, it kills your morale.
“The system has cut short the career progression of civil servants in the FCTA. We have been enslaved since 2004. It’s almost 20 years before this liberation is coming. Now we feel victorious, we feel liberated.
“Wike has been a man that feels the pulse of his subordinates. It is now open heavens for career progression and our joy knows no bounds. I have personally been in this fight for 12 years. The celebration is spontaneous and it continues.”
Wike had last Friday announced the approval by President Tinubu for the establishment of the FCT Civil Service Commission the removal of the FCT Administration from the Single Treasury Account and the creation of a new secretariat for Women Affairs.
Meanwhile, retired directors as well as serving directors of the FCTA have commended President Tinubu and the FCT Minister for the bold move which they say will encourage productivity.
Speaking to a section of the media over the weekend under the aegis of League of Serving and Retired FCTA Directors, through its Chairman, Mr Lukeman Eramosele, the staff lauded Mr President and FCT Minister for recording the landmark administrative reforms to reposition the FCTA bureaucracy for unprecedented physical and human development.”
They expressed delight and gratitude to the duo for the courage, foresight, and political will to effect this far-reaching financial and structural reforms in barely two months, saying it would take the FCT to an enviable level of development.
“The President and the FCT Minister have done very well by seeing the imperative and taking the bull by the horns in making the FCT Civil Service Commission operational within a record period of barely two months,” Eramosele noted.
Meanwhile, President Tinubu approved the establishment of the Civil Service Commission and Women Affairs Secretariat for FCT to allow career progression for civil servants and special needs for women and children in the FCTA.
Disclosing this at a press briefing over the weekend, Wike said that in 2018, the National Assembly passed a Bill for the establishment of a Civil Service Commission for the FCT, and was assented to by the then-acting President Yemi Osinbajo.
Recall that civil servants in the FCT have resisted the idea of posting Permanent Secretaries from the pull to them because they wanted career progression which would enable them to rise from position of directors to permanent secretaries.
Wike said that the civil servants in the FCTA had lost hope because Directors in the Administration could not get to the apex of their careers because there was no Civil Services Commission.
He noted that while the law was already signed some were afraid to implement the law while others felt the development would reduce their power and influence.
The minister said that he was not aware of the existence of the law until recently.
“So, I wrote a Memo to Mr President. I informed him that civil servants in FCT are suffering when the renewed hope agenda is in operation and that the civil servants have lost hope.
“They are not committed to work. Why should I be working when at the end of the day I can’t get to the apex of my career? As such, we must implement that 2018 law as passed by the National Assembly.”
Wike noted that challenges could arise during implementation, “If there are challenges, of course, there is no perfect law. You can only know the challenges when you start implementing.”
“I can tell you authoritatively that Mr. President has approved the establishment of the Civil Service Commission for the FCTA,” he said.
Wike explained that with this development, civil servants will go beyond directors to become Permanent Secretaries, adding, “That is the essence of the renewed hope agenda.”
He called on the civil servants to thank Tinubu for this remarkable consideration after waiting for several years.
The minister said that he accepted to work with Tinubu because of his capacity and the political will to do things that other people were afraid to do.
On the approval for the Women Affairs secretariat, Wike said it was to address the issues of women and children in the FCT.
He said that currently, FCTA has secretariats addressing most development issues but has no specific secretariat that addresses women’s issues.
According to him, women are critical to the development process of the country, stressing the need for a conscious step towards addressing their issues.
