The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has opposed moves to prohibit civil servants from participating in party politics, branding the proposal as unconstitutional and an attack on workers’ fundamental rights.
This followed a remark attributed to the Federation’s Head of Civil Service, Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, in which she purportedly underlined that civil servants are not permitted to engage in partisan politics.
Walson-Jack issued a circular informing civil officials that public service laws ban them from joining political parties or openly engaging in partisan activity. She emphasised that such limits are intended to protect the civil service’s neutrality, professionalism, and nonpartisanship.
However, the NLC, in a strongly worded statement signed by its president, Joe Ajaero, rejected her position, claiming that it violates the 1999 Constitution and binding Supreme Court of Nigeria decisions.
He said, “Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution is explicit in its unqualified guarantee of the right of every Nigerian, including civil servants, to assemble freely and associate with other persons. This includes the freedom to form or belong to any political party, trade union or other association for the protection of their interests.
“The Constitution does not mince words, and neither does the Supreme Court. Anyone who seeks to deny workers these rights is not only speaking against the law but against democracy itself.”
The NLC chief cited the seminal decision of INEC and AGF versus Musa and Others (2003), in which the Supreme Court, through the late Chief Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais, held that civil and public officials have the right to partisan political activity.
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“The provisions of Section 40 are clear. Their import is to allow every person, including public office holders and civil servants, the freedom to belong to any political party or trade union. The only constitutional requirement is that public servants resign at least 30 days before the elections if they intend to contest as candidates,” he stressed.
He refuted Walson-Jack’s position as a personal opinion with no legal basis.
“Her statement is not founded on law. From both constitutional evidence and Supreme Court rulings, it is clear that the Head of Service spoke in error and out of tune with the law and legal precedent,” Ajaero insisted.
The labour leader also argued that the Public Service Rules cannot supersede the Constitution.
“No circular, no regulation, no administrative pronouncement can be superior to the 1999 Constitution or the judgement of the highest court of the land. What the Head of Service has said must therefore be disregarded by every worker,” he said.
The NLC used sections 66(1), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(g), 142(2), 182, 187(2), and 222 of the Constitution to argue that civil servants must retire only after becoming party candidates, not before engaging in party politics.
“It would be illogical to say that a public servant must resign before aspiring when the law only requires resignation 30 days before the election proper. How can one become a candidate without participating in party politics in the first place?” Ajaero queried.
The NLC President called on workers nationwide to assert their constitutional rights without fear.
“We call on all civil servants and workers in the private sector to engage in partisan politics. It is their unfettered constitutional right. Denying them this is nothing short of an assault on democracy,” he declared.
While the Head of Service’s office has yet to respond formally to the NLC’s answer, the interaction has revived debate about the role of public servants in Nigeria’s democratic system. With general elections approaching, the conflict between the requirement for an impartial bureaucracy and workers’ democratic rights could take centre stage in national debate.
