A new dimension has emerged in the ongoing conflict between the National Assembly management and disgruntled employees with the withdrawal of a Senate concurrence bill proposing an increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years.
Reports suggested that some members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) have allegedly endorsed a statement in support of the Extension of Service Bill.
According to Daily Post, in reaction to this development on Monday, the Foundation for Rights Enforcement, Enlightenment, and Defense accused Magaji Tambawal, the Clerk of the National Assembly, of engineering the move to extend his own tenure, despite having less than a year left.
Mohammed Saidu, the organization’s leader, challenged the clerk and other union members to reveal the details of their terms of service when they joined the National Assembly bureaucracy.
He said,
“This time, we want to put it to the Clerk that he is misleading the 10th Assembly, using a compromised union to pursue his personal ambition of breaching the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“It is only the clerk who thinks that the union has the capacity to regulate their service year. The same clerk, during the election of the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, jettisoned the Senate rule on ranking but rather used the 1999 constitution as amended.”
“Today, the same clerk wants to mislead the 10th Assembly by lobbying the National Assembly on a matter that is against the constitution.”
“Ask the clerk, did he not summon a meeting of the management of the National Assembly, and the agenda was 65 years and 40 years?”
“This man is supposed to proceed on leave in April this year. What do you expect from such a congress? Ask the clerk who sponsored the public hearing that was done without any advertisement and was done the day the Nigerian Labour Congress went on strike.”