Amid Low Productivity, High Consumption, Buhari’s Government Approves 14 Days Paternity Leave For Nigerian Men

The development is coming on the heels of highly politicized bureaucracy bedeviled by partisanship, nepotism, pecuniary interests, among others.

This is happening in a country where public holidays that see public servants out of their offices are rampant and government ensures that festivities that fall on weekends are compensated with holidays on working days to assuage different religions.

Also, in some states, on Fridays, civil servants work half day for some religious faith to perform their devine obligations.

But, this is the same country that productivity is declining at a faster rate due to factors, including natural disasters, insecurity, conflicting government policies, among others.

For instance, the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) is hovering between 2 to 2.5 percent with forecast of uncertain future prospect.

However, a circular by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan on Monday with ref no: HCSF/SPSO/ODD/NCE/RR/650309/3, dated 25th November 2022 has given impetus to the policy.

The circular titled, “Computation of Leave Based on Working Days and Approval of Paternity Leave in the Public Service,” said that this was in line with the provisions of the Public Service Rules, 2021 Edition.

“Government has also approved Paternity Leave for serving male officers whose spouse delivers a baby. The period of the leave shall be fourteen working days. The leave shall not be more than once in two years, and a for maximum of four children.

“Where the family of a male officer adopts a child under four months old, the officer will similarly enjoy Paternity Leave for a period of fourteen working days,” Yemi-Esan said.

She said that request for such leave shall be accompanied by the Expected Date of Delivery’s report of the officer’s wife or evidence of approval of the adoption of the child by the relevant government bodies.

She also said that the effective date of the circular was 25th November, 2022.

It will be recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in September this year approved the right to 14-day paternity leave for male Federal civil servants to allow them to bond with their infants.

She said this is to enable for proper bonding between the father and a newborn, either natural-born or adopted, especially at the early stages of the child’s life.

Mrs. Yemi -Esan further explained that fathers of adopted babies of less than four months will also enjoy this gesture.

“We’ve also gotten approval to include paternity leave. This is something that is new. And this is something that the unions in the service asked that we include, and luckily, we’ve been able to include it.
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“We’ve also been able to ensure that leave now is calculated based on working days, not on calendar days, that also has been approved. We also have introduced the transition from paper service to a digital service. So these are some of the new things that are in the new PSR that has just been approved by the federal executive council,” she said.