By Ene Osang Abuja–
Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) and Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday embarked on a nationwide threeday warning strike
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that staff of the agency in Abuja, Minna, Lagos, and among others were seen with placards with inscriptions such as “Mustapha Maihaja must go,” “Mustapha we are tired of aluta, pay our claims or resign, enough is enough
” Other read: “No hazard allowance, no life assurance cover,” “Who will die next,” “No promotion exercise,” “Give us training it is statutory,” “Maihaja is an electrician, we are humanitarian
” The Chairman, Association of Senior Civil Servants, NEMA branch, Mr Sa’ad Bello, told NAN in Abuja that the staff members were embarking on a peaceful protest nationwide
He said the union was also agitating for better welfare and the resignation of its Director-General, Engr
Mustapha Maihaja
According to him, Maihaja has failed to live to expectations and has failed to implement the recently signed agreement with the union, which was chaired by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige
He said the three-day nationwide warning strike commenced from yesterday and would end on Monday, adding that if the management “fails to meet their demands, indefinite industrial action would be declared
” He listed the staff demands to include unpaid allowances, failure to renewed life assurance policy, lack of capacity building for staff amongst others
Bello said the staff had also called for resignation of Maihaja, saying he had shown that he “does not have adequate capacity and knowledge on how to run a humanitarian agency
” “We are here to fight for our rights and implementation of the agreement reached between NEMA management and the Association of Senior Civil Servants in Nigeria, with the Ministry of Labour and Employment as witness
“We have a lot of issues that are bothering the minds of the workers of this agency and we have tried to approach the management but they became adamant
“We gave them the fi rst twenty one days notice to no avail, fourteen days notice to no avail, seven days warning to no avail until the Minister called us to a roundtable to discuss the issues that were raised
“Agreements were reached, with the management of NEMAand the Ministry of Labour and Employment signed, the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria and the NEMA unit of the Association equally signed the agreement
“This agreement bothers on the lots of liabilities of staff welfare, DTA, overtime, transfer allowances that had not been implemented and the agreement specified that it should be concluded within three weeks
“Three weeks had elapsed, nothing has been done about it and we cannot have a vibrant agency without capacity building,” Bello said
All eff orts to reach Maihaja at the time of the report were not successful as he sent a text that he was attending a National Council Meeting Nigeria, Turkey agree to strengthen security pact
President Muhammadu Buhari and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have agreed, after talks, yesterday in Ankara to strengthen cooperation between the security agencies of both countries to counter terrorism
Speaking at a joint press conference after a tete-a-tete with his host, President Buhari said he was “very pleased” that the defence ministers of both countries held extensive discussions on developing new strategies for counter-terrorism
“We are very pleased with the progress of the meeting so far and we are going to wait for the details of meetings between the two countries
“We will as a result of the meeting between the ministers and officials of both countries strengthen rapidly whatever their recommendations are,” he said
On the degradation of Boko Haram, President Buhari said the improved security situation in the North-east was an eloquent testimony to the efforts of his administration in combating terrorism
“We were very surprised and disturbed by the claim made by Boko Haram on what they have been getting from ISIS
We know we will be able to contain them and we have proven that we can do it
“We are very pleased that Turkey is in a position to assist us and has been strengthening our educational and health institutions
” The President said the two leaders also discussed the prospects of increasing their bilateral trade, which has exceeded $779 million in the first eight months of 2017
“There are a lot of potentialities in terms of investments and a lot is being done in the education and health sectors in Nigeria
“These will be strengthened and I assure you that Nigeria is prepared to accept Turkish business people to come and explore more of Nigeria’s potentialities
” In his remarks, Erdogan said Nigeria had great potentials and remains “a global actor in terms of economy, demographics and its peacekeeping records
” He said Turkey was interested in investing in Nigeria’s electricity, refineries and gas sectors, adding that increasing the flights between Turkey and Nigeria would further
improve commercial and peopleto-people relationships
On the fight against terrorism, the Turkish leader said: “There is no difference between Boko Haram, Fethullah Terrorist Organisation or Daesh (ISIS), which has all killed, inflicted pain and hardship on innocent people
“We also expect the same cooperation from Nigeria in fighting against Fethullah that murdered 250 Turkish citizens, last year
