Posted by By BASHIR UMAR, Abuja on
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has criticised the Federal Government's civil service reform programmme, which is billed to consume 3,500 workers. He said, instead, the crowd of 50 ministers and the "uncountable special advisers," should also be right-sized to prove President Obasanjo's sincerity in the programme.
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has criticised the Federal Government's civil service reform programmme, which is billed to consume 3,500 workers. He said, instead, the crowd of 50 ministers and the "uncountable special advisers," should also be right-sized to prove President Obasanjo's sincerity in the programme.
Speaking at a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, at the Senate Tuesday, Oshiomhole challenged Obasanjo to prove to Nigerians that the pruning down of the civil service was not motivated by foreign powers.
"The so-called reform was planned and hatched by our own slave-masters who dance to the tune of the externally driven interests. But any genuine reform must be home-grown and home-driven. Any reform that doesn't carry the people along is a contradiction," he argued.
Another factor that motivated the "avoidable" mass retrenchment, Oshiomhole observed, was that the ministers were angry with the civil service community in Nigeria when they arrived the scene, insisting that "the reformer should also be reformed."
He pointed out that Nigeria does not need 50 ministers because that is a "crowd and crazy number" if the reform policy is anything to go by, adding that "the entire 70 per cent civil servants to be spared would take less than 10 per cent of the amount paid them."
He concluded that the Federal Government was just out to sack the less privileged and asked the Senate to kindly call the president to order in his own interest, pointing out "if people are to be sacked, they must be consulted and there must be law to that effect."