… says 870,000 workforce inadequate for 180m people
The organised labour has cautioned against retrenchment by the Federal Government, saying such will result in unpleasant socio-economic implication for the nation, especially at the time the economy is riddled with high-level unemployment.
Bobboi Kaigama, president, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), and Alade Lawal, secretary general of the association in a statement on Wednesday, said Nigeria’s current workforce needed to be strengthened to serve its huge population, noting that any retrenchment this time would be a disservice to the nation.
According to them, the staff strength in the core federal civil service is less than 100,000 while that of the entire public service, including the civil service, is about 870,000. These also include the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Customs, Immigration, Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and NAFDAC, among others.
“For a population of 180 million people, this is certainly insignificant when it is considered that employment generation and other welfare programmes for the citizens are part of government’s responsibility. It is just a mere 0.48 percent of the entire population,” according to them.
Advising the government to take a cue from other countries, the labour leaders said “Ghana with a population of about 25 million has a public service of 500,000 (2%) while South Africa with a population of about 52 million has a public workforce of about 1.3 million (2.5%).”
The labour said its caution was against the background of the staff auditing ordered by the government in the federal civil service.
They explained that the labour market was already saturated, even as they reminded the President Mohammadu Buhari’s government to stick to its electioneering promise of creating jobs.
“Even in a recent retreat organised by the Federal Government for the ministers, President Muhammadu Buhari re-emphasised the commitment of his administration to diversify the economy, upgrade infrastructure, and generate employment opportunities for the teeming jobless citizens.
“We, therefore, urge the government to invest more energy in these areas to revitalise the economy instead of toeing the old pattern of resorting to retrenchment of civil servants once there is a minor hiccup in the economy,” the union said.
Continuing, they said “we urge the government to continue on the path of blocking leakages in the economy, reduce corruption in the system so as to boost its revenue profile to enable it fulfil its electoral promises to the people.
“It should also be stated that for every one employed Nigerian, there are on the average more than twelve (12) dependants and as such every step should be taken to protect jobs and not to increase unemployment and its attendant adverse effects, poverty inclusive on the citizens.”
