Posted by Rt Hon Abbas Tajudeen, Speaker of the House, has promised National Assembly employees that he will do everything in his power to improve their living conditions.
Under the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), the National Assembly chapter, Speaker Abbas assured the employees that he would contact Senate President Godswill Akpabio about the problems they’ve been having.
On Thursday, when PASAN, NASS Chapter Chairman Mr. Sunday Sabiyi and other union officials paid a courtesy visit to the Speaker’s office in Abuja, he made the promise.
In response to concerns voiced by PASAN’s executive committee, Speaker Abbas emphasized the importance of the staff to the operation of the National Assembly and the need to improve their working conditions.
I agree with what you’ve stated, he declared. Since I formerly occupied your position (at the bottom of the government bureaucracy), I have a deep personal investment in labor issues. You wouldn’t have to educate someone who taught elementary school students about the struggles of the working class. I was a teacher during the darkest hour of the workday.
Now I know what you’re going through. In other words, I feel your pain. I just want you to know that I agree with you. If you’re hurting, know that I feel it, too. Furthermore, I have been where you are now.
I want to promise you that the 10th National Assembly, which I will chair, will do everything in its power to solve the problems we inherited.
The Speaker promised to coordinate with his Senate counterpart to begin sending and paying pension contributions and arrears to the employees.
Speaker Abbas noted that with the passage of the bill establishing the National Assembly Pension Board, which he described as “a very revolutionary achievement that we have all been waiting for,” he would get in touch with Senator Akpabio on how to constitute membership of the board soon, so that the pension scheme would commence early next year.
The Speaker added that the National Assembly’s leadership would investigate options for refueling the buses used to transport staff.
To ensure that parliamentary staff receive their fair share of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s N35,000 post-subsidy salary bonuses, Speaker Abbas has ordered a meeting with the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission the following week.
Sabiyi previously expressed his disappointment in the workers’ reaction to the elimination of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as gasoline.
The PASAN chairman has also requested that arrears be paid and a review of salaries and benefits be conducted.