Governors have reportedly recommended an early retirement for civil servants aged 50 and above, among other things, as part of the way forward to revive the country’s near-collapsed economy. This appears to have irritated Nigerian workers.
Though the report does not reveal what the governors would sacrifice on their own to improve the state of our economy, they have already set themselves on a warpath through this move with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC ).
The congress, in an angry letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, described the move as “extreme selfishness and insensitive cruelty,” and called on all governors, public office holders, and politicians to lead by example and resign.
The congress also said the move remains a clear violation of the Nigerian workers contracts of employment and found this “Repugnant, shameful and utterly irresponsible”,adding that it is an invitation to anarchy and damnation and those promoting the idea should be treated as enemies of this administration.
When I asked some Nigerian civil servants what they think about the move in separate interviews, they told me that the move by the governors remains one of the “most wicked move” in the history of Nigeria’s effort to salvage bad economy.
40 year-old Mrs Grace Joseph, a civil servant based in Abuja, told me that the policy will die a natural death because she believed that the NLC and other unions will fight on their behalf to ensure that such policy that is anti-Nigerian workers does not see the light of the day.
“I don’t think the governors mean well with that policy. They want to retire us by force to fix the economy they helped kill, it will not happen. This country belongs to all of us and I am sure, if they announced that policy, our unions will fight them with all legal means so that it does not see the light of day,” Mrs Grace said.
Another civil servant, Engr Benson Okeke described the policy as obnoxious.
“My brother that policy is obnoxious and cannot work here [Nigeria], is it only poor Nigerian workers that would be at the receiving end of all bad policies in this country, is that the only way to revive the economy, why are these governors like this? He queried.
