Lawyer calls for scrapping of Salary and Wages Commission

An Ilorin based Constitutional lawyer, Mr Deji Gbadeyan, has called for the scrapping of the National Salary and Wages Commission, saying it is moribund.

Gbadeyan made the call on Friday in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), saying it was wrong to have a unified salary structure in a federal system.

The lawyer argued that the salary structure in the public service that was harmonised by the military under a unitary system should no longer operate under a presidential system of government built on federal structure.

According him, this federal structure gave the federating units constitutional independence in both state and local government administration.
Gbadeyan described the setting up a harmonising Salary and Wages Commission to streamline salary and wages of public servants in the country as “a misplaced priority’’.

He said that appointment to public service was based on offer and acceptance.

“That is offer of the terms of appointment and acceptance of those terms that created contract of service of employment.

“I see the Salary and Wages Commission as more of a moribund institution that has not really impacted on the lofty ideas expected in the administration of governance in the country,’’ he said.

He said that individual state should be allowed to fix the salaries of public servants in their respective states.

Gbadeyan, who is also a human right crusader, added that state Houses of Assembly should determine the salary, wages, emoluments and perquisites of office of workers based on their economic buoyancy.

According to the lawyer, each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has its peculiar challenges and staff strength to cater for.

Gbadeyan said for stance, house rents in Port Harcourt and Lagos were far higher than that of Oshogbo and Ado-Ekiti.

“You don’t expect civil servants in Lagos and River States to receive the same salaries with those in Ekiti and Osun State,” Gbadeyan added.
He declared that Rivers and Lagos states or any other state in the country should be allowed to determine what they could pay to cushion the effect of high cost of living on their workers.

“There should be unbundling of public service structure so as to reflect the modicum of their independence and remove the bureaucracy that characterised the civil service administration.

“An important aspect where that can be done is the restructuring of the salary and wages in the public service,” he said.