Recruitment scandal:  Senate finally confirms sharing slots to cronies

The Senate yesterday, confirmed that its Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental affairs has jettisoned its purported probe on allegations of secret recruitments and job racketeering in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
The Senate committee dropped the probe after it discovered that all members of the senate including its leadership are involved in the scandal.
Consequently, the upper chamber confessed to be part of the infamous recruitment scandal that attracted serious criticisms to its leadership last October.
While justifying its new resolve, Senate said yesterday that there was nothing wrong in putting up a system that allows Senators to source jobs for their constituents through a particular committee of the upper legislative chamber.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental affairs, Senator Danjuma La’ah, confirmed yesterday that his committee is actually being used to share jobs that have been sourced by the Senate.
In an interview with Journalists at the National Assembly on Monday, La’ah stated: “There is nothing wrong in senators approaching the committee on Federal Character and inter-governmental affairs to seek job placement for their unemployed constituents.
“It is normal for colleagues (Senators) to come to our committee because it is a better way to go about it. What our committee will do is to ensure that all senatorial districts are equally captured in whatever arrangement that come up. It is not as if we are giving out letters of employment to anyone now.”
According to La’ah “What I’m saying is that if any senator approaches us and there is an opportunity, we would help. The senators are coming to us because we are the only committee to ensure even spread in terms of federal appointment.”
He further confirmed that the Senate has been inviting Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for questioning on their recruitment processes.
“The MDAs have been honouring our invitations to explain the recruitment exercises they carried out. We have told them to adhere strictly to the federal character principles. We have also told them to always carry the Federal Character Commission along before they finalise any internal recruitment,” the lawmaker added.
Recall that shortly after its inauguration, the Senate was bedeviled by a serious recruitment scandal in which its leadership was accused of having diverted 190 job slots from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
As many Senators moved to protest the anomaly, the Ahmed Lawan leadership of the Senate was said to have directed the Federal Character Committee to initiate moves with other MDAs to source job slots for subsequent sharing among Senators.
It was learnt that so far every Senator has benefited at least three such job slots through the La’ah committee.
Interestingly, it was this same La’ah committee which threatened to investigate the job recruitment scandal and sanction defaulting agencies last October.
The lawmaker had equally boasted that he would not succumb to any pressure from the Senate leadership to soft pedal on the investigation.
La’ah had promised that there would be no sacred cows saying: “I don’t care who they have given job slots to. Is it the leadership that will give them the backing? The leadership knows that I am capable of doing my job. That is why they gave me that responsibility,” he had vowed.
He had disclosed further that “I am using my sense to fish out the bad elements. It is not a leadership directive. There are rules and regulations guiding us as a committee. The affected agencies should present themselves for clearance because I will not take it easy. Our people have suffered in bondage for long.
“I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slots to the Senate. The leadership has not told us that they received any slot. So, whom did they give? As the chairman of this committee, who is also representing Kaduna South, I was not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slots. So, we are going ahead with our probe. I have taken it upon myself that I will probe deeply into the agencies’ claims and carry out an extensive investigation. We are going to expose all those that are tarnishing the image of the Federal Government.”
La’ah said further: “We are aware that some of the agencies are selling the employment slots at their disposal. They are commercialising employment, selling a single slot for as much as N1.5m, when we have children who have graduated from tertiary institutions who could not get any job for many years. Some people are just taking Nigerians for granted. Our children are suffering, running from one end to another, looking for jobs. Some have become bandits and terrorists because the jobs meant for them have been cornered by some greedy people.”
According to a staff of the National Assembly who craved anonymity, ‘’the Nigerian federal civil service system emphasizes uniformity, standardization, and transparency in recruiting competent applicants.
‘’Despite these emphases, it is perceived that the recruitment process lacks equity and transparency, making it difficult if not impossible to recruit the best qualified applicants for available jobs in the service’’.

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