Organised Labour under the auspices of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has enjoined the National Assembly to support the effort of the Federal Government to settle all arrears of salaries and pensions owed workers and pensioners in the country through the release of bailout funds to the State Governments.
In a press statement issued in Lagos on Monday, the ASCSN National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, stated that information reaching the National Secretariat of the Union indicates that the National Lawmakers were hatching plans to scuttle efforts by the Federal Government to settle arrears of salaries and retirement benefits owed millions of workers and pensioners.
“We wish to emphasize that money being given to State Governments by the Federal Government under the bailout arrangement is to be repaid and as such not dispensed as gratis.
“Thus, while we appreciate the oversight functions of the National Assembly in budget spending and other financial transactions of the Federal Government, we believe that in terms of bailout to State Governments, members of the National Assembly should use the instrument of their high offices to ensure that State Governors deploy these funds to settle arrears of salaries of workers and retirement benefits of pensioners who, in the first instance, are members of their constituencies”, the Union added.
According to the ASCSN, if the National Assembly continued to harp on hindering the Federal Government from giving bailout funds to State Governments to settle arrears of salaries and pensions, the impression would be created that they were opposed to the welfare of members of their constituencies whose interest they were elected to pursue.
