Civil Servants Staying At Home Since 2020 Lockdown Is ‘National Scandal’ — Former Minister

A former aviation minister, Osita Chidoka, has frowned on the Federal Government’s failure to recall some civil servants to work nearly one year after it directed them to stay at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nigeria’s Head of Civil Service, Folasade Yemi-Esan, had in December 2020 ordered civil servants from grade level 12 and below to stay at home for five weeks due to rising COVID-19 cases.

The stay-at-home directive was extended for four weeks on March 3, 2021. At expiration, the government extended the directive until the end of April.

On May 11, the Boss Mustapha-led Presidential Steering Committee On COVID-19 announced that the directive had been extended further to June 11, 2021 as part of measures to prevent further spread of the virus. Nothing has been heard from the government since the last extension expired.

But Chidoka described the government’s decision to continue to keep the civil servants at home while paying them salaries as “a national scandal”.

He noted that it’s been nineteen months since the country recorded its first COVID-19 case, which eventually forced the government to shut down churches, markets, bars, night clubs and other business as well government offices.

Chidoka said while all private organizations have resumed business, government workers on “levels 01 to 13” are still at home.

“Could it be that someone forgot to write a memo to reopen the government offices, or there may be a realisation that the government can function without its current workforce? On either count, this is a national scandal.

“So, we borrow every month to pay salaries to those who do not work? This negligent act is a sad reminder of the seriousness we are confronting the nation’s existential challenges.

“Someone needs to explain to the nation why civil servants are still at home and receiving salaries monthly? In 2020 and 2021, the government budget for personnel cost was about 6.8 Trillion Naira, implying that we have paid over 4 Trillion to people who did no work for the government.

“Where are our Legislators? Where is the civil society and NLC? The continued closure of government office to the bulk of the staff is a clear indictment of our current national values about productivity and attitude to work—a terrible example,” Chidoka wrote in a Facebook post.

He urged President Muhammadu Buhari to “please call back the stay-at-home civil servants and explain to the nation why they are at home and why your government has not built a digital work platform to enable remote work for public servants.”

As of November 18, Nigeria has carried out a total of 3,440,172 million COVID-19 tests, with 213,403 confirmed cases, 206,245 discharged persons and 2,973 deaths. Total active cases stood at 4,185.