FG Can’t Implement  Paternity Leave for Civil Servants, Directors’ Tenure  without Gazette, Says  HoS

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The federal government has clarified that the paternity leave which was approved for civil servants and the tenure of directors could not be implemented without having the gazettes of the two proposals that were ratified by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in September last year.

The Head of Service of the Federation (HoS), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, gave the clarification at a recent round-table chat with journalists.

Yemi-Esan disclosed that they have been sent to the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture for gazette to give them authority.

The tenure policy prescribed a term limit of four years, which could be renewed once for permanent secretaries and officers on the directorate cadre.

She said: “It has to be gazette before it can be implemented. That process of gazette right now is with the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to effect and print the rule. So that is where we are; the rules have not been passed at all and it is also the same with the tenure of directors. It is the gazette that gives it the authority and once they have been gazette we will distribute to everybody.” 

The new paternity leave entitled federal civil servants to a 14-day paternity leave like their female counterparts to enable proper bonding between the father and the new-born baby at birth, which hitherto was an exclusive accorded to mothers in the civil service

She also said that the civil service is over bloated with a workforce of 76,000 workers and, therefore, could not absorb all graduates in the country.

She said that the public service could only be efficient, productive and rewarding as expected if the country should be stop from turning the public service into a welfare system.

“So it is important for us to understand that we cannot use the public system as a welfare system that is why the salary in the public service is still very low because our mindset is just to pay them stipends to survive. If we want a specialised public service, we have to control the kind of people that are coming in so that we can have an effective system,” she said.