Femi Mustapha
A group under the auspices of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) have asked the Nigerian Custom Service (NCS) to immediately cancel what it’s described as ‘selective’ promotion/elevation of officers in the service.
The group through its National President, Alhaji Yerima Shetitma, in a statement stated that, despite their plea to the Service on 27th February 2022 to reconsider its controversial plan to elevate certain group of officers who joined the service between 2009 and 2015 and leaving behind those who joined the service between 1992 and 1994, the service has proceeded with the widely condemned plan.
It said the argument by NCS that the set of officers employed between 1992 and 1994 was employed as junior officers cannot stand, explaining that most of them have improved their skills and capacity.
“Information available to Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF) confirmed that despite our plea to Nigeria Customs Service on 27th February 2022 to reconsider its controversial plan to elevate certain group of officers who joined the service between 2009 and 2015 and leaving behind those who joined the service between 1992 and 1994, the service has proceeded with the widely-condemned plan.
“The argument by the service, that the set of officers employed between 1992 and 1994 was employed as junior officers cannot stand. Most of them have improved their skills and capacity. You have among them PHD holders, Masters degree holders, graduates of multiple disciplines, members of different professional body, etc.
“At the point of promotion/elevation, the statutory requirement is not the qualification at the point of entry rather qualification at the point of promotion/elevation. That is why public and civil service pay much attention, plan and spend heavily on capacity building, training, etc.
“We wish to re-state our stand against this policy that smacks of administrative abuse, injustice and to further declare as follows; That this selective exclusion in the name of elevation plan should be cancelled immediately, so that everybody can now be carried along.
“The gap or vacuum created due to embargo on employment in the service between 1994 and 2009 was not caused by the older officers and they should not be made to suffer for it, like sacrificial lambs. Evidently, this group of officers has already suffered a lot in the service, in the form of delay in promotion (some stayed up to eight years in one rank), poor remunerations, etc.
“That if this plan stands, it may breed indiscipline, low-morale, low-productivity, feeling of rejection, alienation, work at cross-purposes, low esteem, sabotage, dichotomy and failure in meeting up with targets, etc.
“We still call on the relevant Federal Government agencies to swiftly move into action and ensure that the right thing is done and correct this anomaly. The presidency, the Secretary to
Government of Federation, the Head of Service of the Federation, the National Assembly, the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, the Federal Character Commission, among others, should do the needful to stop this national calamity and right all the wrongs”, the statement stated.