Nigerian Public Servants are facing the full force of the nation’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate with security forces preventing unvaccinated Government workers from accessing their offices at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
Officers of Nigeria Police Force and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps were deployed at the doors of the offices and those who could not produce a vaccination card were turned away.
The mandate for Public Servants came into force as the first cases of the new Omicron variant of the virus were reported.
While many Public Servants were seen thronging the various vaccination centres provided at the Federal Secretariat to get their jabs, others told journalists they would not present themselves.
They accused the Federal Government of discriminatory enforcement, saying the Government chose to compel Public Servants to vaccinate while not enforcing the mandate on the military and paramilitary Agencies.
National President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Tommy Okon claimed workers were not against the vaccination but asked the Government to extend the deadline to the first quarter of 2022.
Meanwhile, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has described the public sector as critical for national development.
Professor Osinbajo was opening the new Public Service Secretariat complex in Asaba, the capital of Delta State.
He said the commissioning was historic, “because the seat of the Civil Service of any arm of Government anywhere in the world is usually one of the major monuments enshrining not just the power, but also the splendour of the authority of Government”.
“This imposing complex clearly meets this requirement. In due course, such buildings become historical monuments,” Professor Osinbajo said.
Abuja, 2 December 2021
