News
Saraki’s Office explains sack of 98 Aides
Bukola Saraki
On Thursday, news made the rounds that Senate President Bukola Saraki had allegedly fired 98 of his 300 staff, starting social media discussion on what Saraki needs 300 staff for.
While briefing journalists on Thursday, Saraki’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Yusuph Olaniyonu confirmed that some staff were let go, adding that most of the officials affected were those posted from the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), who were deployed back to the service.
Olaniyonu said the move is not to cut cost, but to increase efficiency of the office, and also determine who will fit into Saraki’s plan for the Senate.
PUNCH reports that he declined commenting on the number of aides fired.
“It is entirely his (Saraki’s) discretion to determine who works with him, those who are helping his agenda, and those areas where gaps need to be filled. This is important for the efficiency of the office.
It is not a negative thing; it is to ensure that the office is more invigorated and better positioned. It is possible some new people may also be joining in areas lapses have been observed.
It is good for a public official like the Senate President to have given everybody the opportunity to serve. The last 26 months were good enough to determine who would fit into his agenda for the next 22 months of the lifespan of this Senate.
The restructuring that has just taken place on the workforce in the Office of the Senate President being reported as mass sacking in the media was meant to reposition the office for service delivery, the outcome of which has affected three categories of members of staff in different ways.
The first category of workers are those that have been found capable and competent to continue with their job, like all the entire members of the media unit.
The second category of workers are those earlier seconded from the National Assembly bureaucracy to serve in the Office of the Senate President but now directed to go back to their civil service job, like the Head of Administration, Folashade Adigun.
The third category of workers are those whose services within the last two years were not all that satisfactory in the eye of the committee set up by the Senate President to carry out the repositioning exercise of his office,” Olaniyonu said.
The Senate President had directed that a “comprehensive human resource audit” be carried out in his office in December 2016.
