Jonathan Calls for Uniform Civil Service Pay Structure Nationwide

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has renewed calls for the harmonisation of grade structures and salary scales across Nigeria’s federal and state civil services, arguing that public servants performing identical roles should receive comparable remuneration and career progression regardless of whether they work for the centre or a state government.

Jonathan made the appeal on Friday in Yenagoa during the foundation-laying and fundraising ceremony for the secretariat complex of the Bayelsa State Association of Retired Permanent Secretaries. The event drew senior government officials, traditional rulers and retired top bureaucrats.

The former president, who once governed Bayelsa before ascending to the presidency, noted that the quality of personnel in the state’s public service stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their federal counterparts. He recalled that as governor he had deliberately restructured the Bayelsa civil service by introducing Grade Level 17 for directors who had previously been capped at Level 16.

“The civil service of the federation is the civil service of the federation, whether you are working at the state level or you are working at the federal level, and I believe that the salary structure should be the same because it is the same government,” Jonathan said. He drew a parallel with the academic sector: “A professor lecturing in a federal university should receive the same salary as a professor lecturing in a state university. So why should a director in the state be on Level 16 while a director at the federal level is on Level 17?”

According to Jonathan, the earlier reform in Bayelsa involved reclassifying officers previously on Level 16 as deputy directors and promoting them accordingly after he instructed the Secretary to the State Government, the Head of Service and the Accountant-General to implement the change. The goal, he explained, was to ensure that a director in the state service could seamlessly transition to, or match the status of, a federal counterpart.

The proposed secretariat complex, estimated to cost N500 million and projected for completion within two years, is intended to serve as more than a clubhouse for retired permanent secretaries. Association Chairman King Collins Ebi Daniel described it as an “institutional edifice” that will house administrative offices, event halls, conference rooms and recreational facilities, preserving the legacy of public service while remaining open to wider use by government and private citizens.

Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri, represented by Head of Service Dr Ebiye Sawyer, pledged the state government’s support for the project.

Sawyer characterised the foundation-laying as the start of a lasting legacy for retired permanent secretaries and affirmed that the necessary backing would be provided to see the complex through to completion.

Other dignitaries, including the chairman of the occasion, Professor Imiri, a former Director-General of the Nigerian Law School’s Yenagoa Campus, and Chief Launcher Chief Maxwell Oko, also pledged support. They urged the association to consider evolving the facility into a policy institute capable of contributing to state and national development. Traditional ruler King Amalate Turner and Senator Benson Agadaga (Bayelsa East) were among those present.

Jonathan’s intervention comes against a backdrop of persistent disparities between federal and state civil service conditions.

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Federal officers are remunerated under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), which after successive adjustments linked to the national minimum wage now places senior directors and permanent secretaries on significantly higher basic pay and allowances than many of their state counterparts. States retain autonomy over their own salary structures, leading to wide variations; some, including Bayelsa, have in recent years implemented percentage increases and minimum-wage adjustments, yet gaps with federal scales remain a frequent point of agitation by organised labour.

Bayelsa workers under the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress have repeatedly pressed for full domestication of federal salary reviews, payment of arrears and improved welfare packages, citing the high cost of living. The state government’s monthly wage-related expenditure has hovered around N13 billion in recent periods, covering civil servants, political appointees, pensions and related obligations.

By returning to an issue he first addressed as governor more than a decade and a half ago, Jonathan has placed the question of equity in public-service conditions back on the national conversation. Whether the call translates into concrete policy coordination between the federal government and the 36 states remains to be seen, but the former president left little doubt about his conviction that a single, coherent structure would better serve the Nigerian public service.