House of Reps encourage Tinubu to lift employment ban in gov’t agencies
The House of Representatives has made a unanimous call to President Bola Tinubu, urging him to lift the embargo on employment into agencies of the government. This decision follows the adoption of a motion put forward by Rep. Francis Waive (APC-Delta) during a plenary session on Wednesday.
During his presentation, Waive highlighted that the previous administration had imposed a ban on employment in federal government agencies due to the economic recession caused by plummeting crude oil prices and the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. He reminded the House that in the past, the 9th House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting the then-president to lift the ban on employment.
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However, despite reports on social media claiming that the ban had been lifted, no evidence of any employment taking place has been found. This has led to a shortage of manpower in the civil service, particularly in the junior and middle-level cadre, as officers are promoted, retire, and unfortunately, pass away.
To address this issue, some agencies have resorted to hiring casual staff and paying them from their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and other sources. While this may seem like a solution, the non-pensionable status of these casual staff and the use of government funds without legislative appropriation is deemed illegal.
The removal of petroleum product subsidies has further exacerbated the hardships faced by unemployed Nigerian youth. As part of the rescue measures, the representatives stressed the importance of lifting the employment embargo and actively employing qualified young Nigerians.
To ensure compliance with this resolution, the lawmakers called on the Federal Civil Service Commission and other relevant bodies to promptly act upon the directive given by the President.
Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, in his ruling, mandated the Committees on Public Service Matters and Labour and Employment (once constituted) to oversee compliance and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the federal government placed the embargo on employment in the Federal Public Service in March 2020, citing the poor state of the economy. However, certain critical vacancies in the health and security sectors were exempted from the ban to ensure the efficiency of those sectors.
The former Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, had also discussed the employment embargo, attributing it to the unfavorable economic conditions at the time.
