President Muhammadu Buhari has hinted at a possible upward review and a harmonized salary structure for civil servants across the country.
Buhari gave this assurance on Thursday while speaking during the occasion of the Civil Servants Day Celebration held at the Banquet Hall, State House Abuja.
He noted that to this effect, a Presidential Committee has been set up to harmonize salaries nationwide. “It is my hope that the outcome of the Committee’s work will provide the impetus for an upward review of the salaries of deserving civil servants, having recently increased the Duty Tour Allowance of all Civil Servants as a starting point,” the president stated.
Buhari urged the civil servants to be patient as the process is ongoing, adding that his administration will honour “deserving and hardworking Officers who, in their spheres of activities, have demonstrated high level commitment and dedication to duty”.
Also speaking at event, which was the highpoint of week-long activities organised to celebrate the Nigerian Civil Service, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, stressed that the public service workforce must be able to demonstrate the capacity to support government’s agenda as an efficient bureaucracy.
Touching on the theme “Performance Management System (PMS): Impact on Productivity in the Nigerian Public Service”, Yemi-Esan, noted that the current administration has employed a systematic approach for the emplacement of PMS in the civil service.
“It is also hoped that the new system will inculcate a performance based culture that promotes the recognition and reward of high performance within the Federal Public Service; and ensure effective measurement and outcomes of performance at all levels,” she added.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has made a passionate appeal to Nigerians to be tolerant of one another and embrace peace.
The president, according to his special adviser on media and publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, made the appeal after visiting Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda on Thursday.
The president toured the permanent exhibitions at the Memorial and laid a wreath at the mass graves where more than 250,000 victims of the genocide were buried.
He also paid tribute to the memory of the victims and prayed for healing for the survivors.
After the historic visit, the president told journalists that the lessons from his visit were the need for Nigerians to continue to be tolerant of one another, and for the nation to also preserve its own historical antecedents from the Nigeria Civil War (1967-1970).
‘‘I went through all the experiences from 15 January 1966 to date. I was a Governor, Minister, and Head of State and went through detention. I returned to partisan politics and will finish my two-terms as constitutionally allowed.
‘‘We fought a 30-month bitter civil war and we killed about a million of each other. Nigeria went through this kind of terrible development process,’’ he said.
Before departing, the president also wrote in the visitors’ book: ‘‘Remembering the victims of this dark history of the Rwanda Genocide, we pray that humanity will never experience this kind of hatred, wickedness and violence toward others because of their ethnic background, religion, and beliefs.
‘‘Nigeria is strongly committed to the prevention of mass atrocity anywhere in the world and believes that perpetrators of such crimes; and their enablers, anywhere in the world must be held accountable.’’
President Buhari is in Kigali, Rwanda to participate in the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, CHOGM.
He will hold bilateral talks with the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson on Thursday and attend the official opening of CHOGM on Friday, followed by high-level meetings of Heads of State and Government.
