Internationally Youth Day: SDP calls for unification of all civil service salaries

Internationally Youth Day: SDP calls for unification of all civil service salaries

JOEL OLADELE, Abuja 

The national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to unify the salaries of civil servants across the country.

Gabam made the appeal on Monday, in Abuja during the commemoration of the International Youth Day Celebration 2024, organized by SDP.

He decried a prevalent situation where parents pay as much as N3 million to get their children jobs in some agencies after suffering to train them even up to the university level.

He added that civil servants in some federal agencies receive juicy salaries, while others are paid less despite working for the same government.

“People in government establishments collect money up to one, two, three million naira for someone to get employed,” he said.

“That is the kind of barbarism we’re going through. Some parents sell properties to train their children and now, when it is time for the children to take care of them, the parents need to sell something to get them employed.

“There’s no greater disservice than this. I wish President Bola Tinubu could fish out those ministries and parastatals that they called ‘juicy.’ From the decimation of salaries, people working in NNPCL and NPA would look superior to people working in the Ministry of Information and other Nigerians.

“And these are government agencies, ministries and parastatals, but they discriminate even on the salary scale and we think they’re doing the right thing.

“It can never be right until the government unifies all salaries. Parents should not be struggling to get their children into NNPCL, FIRS, Maritime or NPA because of the salary.”

Speaking further to the youth gathering, the SDP Chairman noted that; “Every ministry should be juicy. It depends on who is there. It’s not about the office but who is there. We have lazy people who have no experience of being even councilors being appointed as ministers, and they’re experimenting on the seat of the ministry. You have to fight for your rights. “

Meanwhile, Former Chief Security Officer to the late military head of state, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd), also called on Nigerian youths to use their voter cards to unseat bad leaders.

Al-Mustapha spoke at the same event, accusing politicians of being disconnected from the people.

“They’re not connected to the villages and do not know how the councils and local governments functioned before and that is why the LG system was crippled. This is part of the crisis the federal government is trying to handle today.

“Today, insecurity, kidnapping, barbarism and the failure of leadership have crippled our communities. They cannot even farm. The crop of leaders from 1999 who are not career politicians queued in and hijacked the system and this is the only reason a governor will tell you that the state resources belong to him and say, ‘It’s my money’,” Al-Mustaph said.

He emphasized the importance of using one’s voter card to effect change in leadership.

“This situation, we have the capacity to change it and we can change it through only one way. In a democracy, the day of the election is the day of coup and the weapon for coup is your fingers. You change bad leaders by voting them out, not with guns.

“And then, all of you here, you have your weapons, you have your guns – your fingers. Now, if you don’t use it, who would you blame? People rig elections where they’re not popular. Nobody will rig if you cast your votes and work together to protect them. I’m happy that the era of rigging is gone.

“If you see millions of youths on the streets, you will assume that the world is coming to an end. You can’t afford the injustices in Nigeria that have kept us where we are today.

“I read the recent report released by the MBS; our judges are the most corrupt judges in the world. Get your PVC. That is your greatest weapon. Don’t be deterred. Don’t let anyone intimidate you. This is our country.”