The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has called on the Federal Government to urgently pay all outstanding entitlements owed to public service employees.

The union also condemned the forceful dispersal of protesting workers at the Federal Ministry of Finance recently. The workers said the frequent protests by federal employees over unpaid entitlements were embarrassing to President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and urged the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) to immediately provide financial backing for the payments.

ASCSN Secretary-General, Joshua Apebo, in a statement, said the union had consistently submitted memoranda to the Federal Government for over 10 years, demanding payment of the arrears.

The union recounts historical struggles, including resisting the attempted privatisation of Unity Schools under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, which was halted in 2010 after sustained protests and legal action.

“These entitlements include but are not limited to salary arrears, promotion and elongation arrears, first 28 days instead of hotel accommodation, duty tour allowances, payment of allowances to Education Officers displaced from Unity Schools in the North-East, vacancies arising from the disarticulation of Junior Secondary Schools, and the regularisation of PTA teachers’ appointments,” Apebo said.

Apebo said the resolutions from yearly meetings of chairmen of the 110 Federal Unity Schools, including the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service (FEQAS), were forwarded to the Ministry of Education, with an ultimatum issued in January 2025 for the implementation of the demands.

He reiterated the ASCSN’s call for the restoration of gratuity payments to public servants, which, he added, were inexplicably stopped in 2004 despite the Pension Reform Act not abolishing them.

“Certainly, a trade union that has worked tirelessly over the decades to protect the interests of its members cannot be linked to any mischievous attempt by a few misguided staff of the Federal Ministry of Finance to impede the union’s legitimate demands,” he said.