Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Thursday embarked on a peaceful protest at the Commission’s headquarters over alleged stagnated promotions and directorate cadre appointments.
They explained that they staged the protest to attract the intervention of the Commission’s board which was sitting at the time.
Mr Nelson Oleghe, the Chairman, Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, SEC Unit, enumerated some other issues affecting the staff to include parity adjustment, vacancy declaration and examination structure.
He said:“Before now, we have had several issues that the board and management have not attended to. One of the issues is the appointment of directors. We had several discussions with the executive management to appoint directors from the deputy directors we have today but they said they will appoint only six due to lack of funds.
“Reliably, we heard that there was a memo going to the board to bring in directors from outside including those that had served here, so we felt that will be injustice to the system.Another issue is outstanding promotion; we have four sets of promotion that are due but not carried out.
“There are staff that have stayed in a position for over seven years without promotion. The management said that they will do the promotion but we have not seen any evidence on ground. Another issue is parity adjustment, vacancy declaration, examination structure.
“We heard that the board will meet today and we felt it was an avenue to ventilate our grievances before the board. We have discussed with the board members,” he said.
Speaking,Mr Salihu Mohammed, an ex-officio member of the association, said the board had been able to douse the tension.
Mohammed said the staff were unhappy with some management decisions in the commission, saying “this is the hardest period for us.
“The board has made several commitments and we look forward to seeing those commitments being addressed.”
Mr Mamman Ali, the Treasurer of the association, said the association was relying on the legacies and integrity of the commission’s board Chairman, Mr Olufemi Lijadu to address their grievances.
Reacting,Mr Ibrahim Boyi, the Executive Commissioner, Corporate Services of SEC, who addressed the staff during the protest, appealed to them to calm down, saying that they should not base their action on unofficial information.
Boyi assured the staff of Management’s readiness to dialogue with the staff in a bid to ensuring industrial harmony in the Commission.
He said “The Board of the Commission is currently meeting to approve the appointment of qualified senior staff as directors and we believe this process will be concluded very soon”.
He said that the management of the commission has listened to the demands of the staff and as a responsive team, they will do everything within their capabilities to ensure that all grievances are promptly addressed.
He added:“We are already in discussions with the staff representatives as we speak, and we hope that at the end of today we will come out with agreements that would be beneficial to all and help to ensure peace and industrial harmony in the SEC”
