There is lamentation among civil servants across the country as the hardship unleashed by the removal of fuel subsidy deepens the pains of workers, who were already agonising over their inability to meet essential needs.
This is as governors in several states had left office with two or three tranches of their humongous annual retirement benefits paid in one lump sum while they also left several months of unpaid salaries and pension benefits of retired civil servants.
While the hapless civil servants were still weeping over the salaries the departing governor heartlessly did not pay them in addition to the mind-blowing loans they left for their successors to content with, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy during his inauguration on May 29.

Since that pronouncement, the prices of every item in the country, from sachet water to processed goods and even vegetables cultivated in open spaces in the country, have shot up astronomically.

Reports from across the country, paint a gloomy picture of how civil servants are struggling to survive.


ABUJA

At the Federal Ministry of Education, fewer persons turn up for work on daily basis since the effect of the fuel subsidy removal began to bite harder.
It was, however, gathered that there was a verbal agreement among workers, perhaps, with the approval of their supervisors, to skip some days due to the sudden hike in the cost of transportation and other services.

A staff of one of the ministries who pleaded anonymity confirmed to Sunday Sun that some departments have worked out “clean” arrangements among the workers on which days to show up in the office.
The staff said: “There was no memo from the Office of Head of Service of the Federation to the effect that workers should skip days. However, there was such agreement among the staff within their departments. It was being done in a particular manner and neatly because there was no official circular to support the arrangement.

“These arrangements within departments were made in such a way that the official work would not suffer. So far, the arrangement has been working well, and nobody can feel the low turnout of staff.

“My brother, it’s not easy for us at all. Cost of transportation, cost living and other services have gone beyond our reach, and nothing was added to our salary to cushion the effect, neither were palliatives provided for us.”

The same arrangements seem to have also been adopted in some agencies under the Federal Ministry of Education. Inquiries indicated that there was a drop in number of members of staff that come to work despite the fact that there was no official circular to back up the activities of the workers.

Commenting on measures by the Federal Government to cushion the hardship affecting its workers as result of steep rise in transport fares and cost of living, Director Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Mr Olamide Oshundun, said: “You know that President Tinubu has set up a committee, which has been meeting with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). My Permanent Secretary has been attending the meeting. I don’t have full information on what has been discussed, but I know that the NLC has made some demands.

“However, I don’t think we are doing anything at the Ministry level because you cannot plan anything without a budget and if you see the kind of budget released for 2023 it is like less than 20 per cent of what we had in 2022. So, there is no way any ministry can operate successfully with the budget of 2023. In fact, our own thinking is that the new administration of President Tinubu would revisit that budget. No ministry can function well with the kind of budget they left.
“So, I can tell you authoritatively that I don’t think the ministry is planning anything because what the ministry receives now is not even enough to meet the day-to-day activities of the ministry. So, for me, they cannot start thinking of cushioning effects. All of us are still coming to work every day. Although I can say the ministry is thinking along the line of buying more staff buses and other staff welfare. Like before they left, the consequential allowance is what civil servants have been able to get, but it is not enough and government itself is thinking of salary increase. Apart from buses, there is nothing the ministry can do on its own.”

Head of Corporate Affairs at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mrs Hadiza Umar, on her part told Sunday Sun: “For now we encourage staff to work online from their homes which we have been doing since the COVID-19. So, for most of our activities, you can work online. I would still need to find out if there are other incentives asides working from home.”

Reuben Emeh, a civil servant who resides in Byazhin across one of the villages in Kubwa, said that he goes to work only on Wednesdays, based on an understanding reached with his colleagues.

“I used to spend N1,200 to and fro, but with the way things are now and I spend close to N3,000 to and fro. So, we had a meeting in the department and came up with a roster, which permits us to appear in the office once in a week. We all can only report to the office at once only when there is emergency. My salary is not up to N100,000. What will remain if I pay N3,000 for only transport daily? This is really frustrating. The government should try and look into it, or we will continue pretending why the economy is draining,” he said.

Another civil servant, Joy Emeka, said that the situation has turned her into a commercial taxi driver: “It has not been easy for me to report to work daily due to the increase in fuel price. I used not to carry passengers with my vehicle while going to work, but now I have to take passengers along, to enable me to fuel my tank. If I want to use my salary that means nothing will be left for me by the month end.”

Ameh Ede also confessed that the situation has turned him into a commercial taxi driver though he doesn’t go to work daily based on an agreement reached with other colleagues.

“In my office we agreed to be coming to work twice in a week. I carry passengers any time I’m going to work and on the free days I also use my car fully for taxi service, to be able to meet up with family needs,” he said.

ABIA

Like most citizens across the country, civil servants and workers in general in Abia State are groaning under the weight of sharp increase in transport fares occasioned by the increase in the fuel pump price without any measures to ameliorate the biting effect.

Since the sharp increase in transport fares happened, the state government has not come out with any clear-cut policy or programme to cushion the effect of the increase in transport fares.

For instance, prior to the chaotic transport fares, it had been government policy that local government workers must come to work for a certain number of days before they receive their salary.

To concretize this, the immediate past Governor Okezie Ikpeazu administration introduced the biometric system of signing in every morning they come to work and sign out through the same process at the end of work. Each Local Government worker was expected to thump-print for a certain number of days in a month before qualifying to receive that month’s salary. Although, this was to check truancy, but most of the workers never found it funny, as they would still not be paid at the end of the month.

Many had thought that Governor Alex Otti would abolish the ‘factory system’, especially in this period of high cost of transportation, to reduce the number of days workers show up and thereby cushion the impact of the high cost of transportation.

With the biometric system still in place, workers find it extremely difficult to devise means of cutting down on high cost of transportation to get to work in the state.

On some routes in the state, the fares jumped by 100 per cent, but on other routes, fares went up by just 50 per cent. Short drops in some parts of Umuahia that used to be N50 before the increase in petrol price went up to N100 while in some other places the short drops cost N150. The same is applicable in Aba, the commercial hub of the state.

Though the government claims that it pays N40,000 minimum wage, but workers said what they receive monthly is a far cry from what the government actually pays.

Lamenting over the situation, a civil servant in Umuahia, who told Sunday Sun only her first name, Esther, claimed that the workers are paid less than the national minimum wage of N30,000 monthly.

To make matters worse, the present administration has barred workers from selling items in the offices. Proceeds from such sales would have helped the junior staff to cushion the high cost of transportation.

Another civil servant, Orji, who works in one of the local governments, said that it has been difficult for them to make ends meet as almost half of their salaries are spent on transportation.

“I desperately want the governor to do something to ameliorate the transportation hardship that state workers are going through, so that they can see something left of their salaries to take home to meet other needs,” Orji appealed.

PLATEAU

The Plateau State civil servants have been home for almost three months now following the industrial action embarked upon by the Labour union since May11, this year, when the past administration failed to meet their demands.

The state government under the current administration of Governor Caleb Mutfwang had announced the commencement of physical verification of all state workers and pensioners following series of engagement and understanding reached between the new administration and the labour leaders.

Some workers, who spoke to Sunday Sun at the Joseph Gomwalk State Secretariat while waiting patiently for the exercise, recounted how they got to the venue despite non-payment of salaries.

Source: https://sunnewsonline.com/fuel-subsidy-removal-civil-servants-across-the-federation-groan/

I dey laff o

Lol.

According to one oldskool Nairalander, "they should hold their leaders accountable and insist they deliver".

Idiots. They should be slavishly grateful to BAT for having the "courage" to make their lives miserable. They should also be happy to "suffer now in order to enjoy later". Docile mo'fvckers.

Nawa o

Let the poor breathe....... don't suffocate them

Hmmm my brother if I shout who go hear me. Even if I am not in Nigeria am feeling the fuel subsidy removal

abhosts:
Sometimes it appears as if APC people wake up every morning and pray to satan for ideas on how to inflict hardship on the populace. Just when we thought nobody can be as heartless as Buhari, Tinubu ups the ante. He was telling the truth when he said he wanted to continue where Buhari stopped.