Some senior civil servants have cursed the Nigerian Government for postponing their promotion interview, Saturday, after they spent days in Abuja.
The cancellation was announced after the candidates had spent five days going through accreditation at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria located along Abuja/Kubwa Highway.
The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), had invited no fewer than 6, 000 civil servants at the directorate level across the country for the 2018 promotion examination in Abuja.
A circular with Reference No: FC.6243/Gov/2018/Vol.1/322, dated June 23 and signed by the Permanent Secretary at the commission, Comfort Ekaro, conveyed the cancellation of the exercise.
The circular, which was issued by Mrs. Ekaro on behalf of the commission’s chairman reads, “The Federal Civil Service Commission wishes to inform candidates for the 2018 Directorate Level Promotion Examination that the exercise earlier scheduled to hold from 25th -28th June, 2018 will no longer hold due to unforeseen circumstances.
“The examination will now hold for Monday, 16th July – Thursday, 19th July, 2018.
“However, the examination at the five designated foreign centres of New York, London, India and Nairobi will hold on Saturday, 7th July 2018 as earlier scheduled.
“The commission deeply regrets the inconveniences this shift in dates may cause our esteemed candidates.”
The exercise, which was originally slated to begin on June 15, was rescheduled for June 19, when Friday, June 15 and Monday, June 18, were declared public holidays by the government.
The holiday marked the end of the Ramadan Fast and the Moslem festival of Eid El-Fitr.
The decision to reschedule the interview was conveyed in a circular with reference No: FC.6243/Gov/2018/Vol.1/288.
The subject of the circular reads, “Re: Rescheduling of the 2018 Directorate Promotion Exercise.”
Dated June 12, the circular was signed on behalf of the permanent secretary of the commission by the Director of Promotion, A. K. Adamson.
“Further to the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) Circular Ref. No: FC.6243/Gov/2018/Vol.1/228 dated June 5, 2018, on the above subject, the accreditation time-table for the 2018 Directorate Level Promotion Exercise has been rescheduled in view of the public holidays declared by the Federal Government for Friday 15th and Monday 18th June, 2018,” the circular reads.
“The rescheduled accreditation time-table, which commences on Tuesday 19th June, 2018, is attached herewith for ease of reference, please.”
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Based on the directive, the affected civil servants who had already booked flights and vehicles to convey them to Abuja for the interview frantically rescheduled their movements.
Because the FCSC has no accommodation for the invited candidates, some of them started arriving Abuja on Sunday, June 17 and checked into nearby hotels in Kubwa District.
However, those who could not afford to pay for hotels settled in with relations and friends in the Federal Capital Territory.
One of the affected civil servants, who gave her name as Amadi M, told this newspaper, she endured over 12 hours’ drive on a commercial bus from Port Harcourt to attend the interview.
“God will visit them with wrath for bringing this level of hardship on us for no just cause,”she cursed.
“How can they invite over 6,000 of us to Abuja and made us waste almost one week here and ask us to go back and come again?
“I came in on Monday while many of us arrived on Tuesday. You can imagine traveling from Port Harcourt to Abuja on a commercial bus and spending over 12 hours on the road,” Mrs. Amadi lamented.
“The accreditation started on Tuesday and ended on Saturday evening and we were ready for the examination from Monday.
“But as people got back to their various residences, we started hearing that the process has been aborted.”
Another civil servant, who came for the exercise from Sokoto, Ibrahim Sa’ad, described the action of the FCSC as “punitive and inhuman.”
Mr. Sa’ad lamented that at a time Nigerians are finding it difficult to meet the basic needs of their families, it was unthinkable for the commission to treat workers with such carelessness.
“Allah will judge them for what they have done to us. If they were not prepared for the promotion interview, why did they invite people to come and suffer in Abuja?
“This government is one of the worst we have ever had in this country and I wonder why they think the people are stupid. We are waiting for them in 2019,” he said.
Other candidates who spoke on the matter said the commission might have been ordered to stop the examination because of the national convention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) which took place in Abuja during the weekend.
When contacted, the commission’s spokesperson, Joel Oruche, said the promotion examination was postponed due to circumstances beyond the control of the FCSC.
“If you have listened to the announcements we have been making on the media, you will discover we said the examination could not hold due to unforeseen circumstances,” Mr. Oruche said.
Asked whether the commission considered the cost of the postponement on the candidates, he responded, “That was why we deeply regretted the inconveniences the shift in dates would cause our esteemed candidates.”
