Following the Monday sit-at-home order in Anambra, the state government has announced that it will soon commence the payment of pro-rata salary for civil servants across the state.
This is a bid to end the Monday sit-at-home, and will be effective February 2026. This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor.
While speaking with Journalists in Awka, the state capital, Mefor revealed that the pro-rata mode of salary payment was decided during the end-of-tenure retreat of the Anambra State Executive Council, held in Awka.
He said,
“The retreat acknowledged that even though these factors existed in the past, they no longer exist, making them invalid reasons for absenteeism from work.
“The workers were simply enjoying the sit-at-home because they know that whether they come to work or not, they will be paid salaries.
“The ANSEC retreat has decided to put a stop to the anomaly. Ordinarily, the matter should be treated as a case of absenteeism, which could lead to dismissal from service, as is captured in the civil service law.
“But we are not following that route. The state government has decided that it is paying pro-rata from this February. So if you don’t want to lose your salary for that Monday, then you come to work.
“The mechanism is already in place and forms are being devised, so that workers can clock in on Monday morning and clock out at the close of work.”
“Any day civil servants fail to come to work, it means that the state government’s business will stagnate and, by implication, the economy of the state will stagnate. Income accrueable to government will be lost and there’s no guarantee that such losses can be recovered.
“For example, if the staff of the Anambra Internal Revenue Service and other MDAs decide to absent from work on Monday, the state loses a lot of monies and impedes the progress of work.”
“This is part of the reason for the decision to pay pro-rata; it is to ensure that every naira spent reflects fairness, efficiency, and sustainability.
“Do we now say we give up Monday and take Saturday as a working day? That will not work. It will mean that Anambra State has yielded to whoever introduced this sit-at-home, and again, we will be the only state working on Saturdays in Nigeria, and that will be absurd.
“The state is losing so much due to the sit-at-home and the government cannot be asking the markets and other informal sectors to show up on Monday when its own workforce has refused to come”.
“The thing has to be done. Four years is enough. The economic loss of the sit-at-home runs into trillions since it started, according to an international firm.
It is a decision the state government has taken and the implementation is already on.”