The Need for Rethink on the Issue of Retirement Age for Civil Servants/Appeal for The Lift of Employment Embargo in Bauchi State MDA’s.
1. It’s a well-known fact that civil service is the engine room for government machinery, it’s a coordinating center for the decision of both the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary branches of the governance system in the whole world. Civil servants therefore supposed to be upright, well-educated and honest. This needs includes the measurement of retirement age, the mental, emotional stability and good health to enable them perform effectively for the development of any nation.
2. The retirement age leaves at after a due consideration of the factors above, however, a lot of factors have proved this pegging of the retirement age negative to especially developing countries were the economy is not diversified. The educational system not professionalized at its onset.
3. The visible problems with the retirement in Nigeria is that workers are retired at tender age.
Because employments are made from young person’s learning primary and secondary schools and those who attending high schools were not many and the schools were not enough too. It is also a fact that high level education was not give the priority it deserves in the past late 60’s – 70’s. So the number of youth that attended the few primary, secondary and some higher level colleges that graduated students at certificate and diploma levels, usually on in-service training, were normally those that were in the civil service especially in the northern Nigeria.
4. Present Situation of Civil Service in Bauchi
It’s a known fact that the civil service has lost more than half of its staff due to
* Death
* Voluntary retirement
* Retirement due age
* Transfer of service
* Dismissal
The major lost is due to retirement as staff retire in numbers as a result of none employment into the service for many years despite the fact that people are leaving the service Due to reasons enumerated (a-e) retirement due to age being the major.
5. MY OBSERVATIONS AND CONCERNS
The failure of the previous leaders to innovate, expand and modernize the civil service left with a very few vacancies. This brought about preference, discrimination and favoritism thereby breeding indiscipline in the system. For about eleven years (11) previous governments in the state could not employ civil servants despite the fact that many youths are being graduated from our schools.
Since then, civil servants are dying, retiring, transfer or leaving on their own there were no employment with either replacement or full employment.
The trend changes only in the early 80’s when many higher level educations receive a boost and many youths were enrolled. A number of potential civil servants graduated and the service could not readily accommodate them, there were no expansions, modernization and initiatives with service that could enable many Youth be accommodated.
Maintaining retired civil servants will add nothing to the system rather than unnecessary burden to the government, system is suffering not because of age of retirements but because the teaming youth who have graduated but not employed, The Civil Servants should train the younger ones while in Service not until their retirement. Adding retirement age is not the solution. Government should just employ the unemployed graduates we have in the State.
Sir, it is a known fact that, unemployment is a huge problem all over the country but it’s worsened here in Bauchi than any state with the highest number of jobless graduates; statistically; according to enumeration.ng which stated that Bauchi State has a number of 20,761 graduates annually. For over 11 years, Bauchi State Government has not recruited civil servants, despite the massive number of retirees, death, replacements, transfer of services, leaving work temporarily. While we have younger talented graduates that can sharply work into state MDA’s.
We do believe that by engaging fresh energy, development will have ensured our economy will grow, and level of poverty and crimes will reduce. While anticipate your swift and favourable response, please accept the assurance of my best regards and loyalty.
Yours in Youth, Development
Mallam Umar Laura Hardawa
Falakin Hardawa
This letter copied to:
– The Head of Service, Bauchi State
– Nigeria Labour Congress
– Civil service Commission
