By Garba Yedimakudon
Rev. Gibson Mshelia is a 70 years old retired clergy of the Evangelical Church Winning All, (ECWA) from Borno State who always relishes in reliving with nostalgia the ease with which he got his first employment as a Clerical Assistant with the Nigeria Railways Corporation ( NRC) in Lagos in 1970.
Whenever, there is a conversation on the difficulties now being encountered before being recruited into the federal civil service, Mshelia would reminisce on how as a young man while awaiting his West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) results, travelled to Lagos for a job interview at the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA). He was merely armed with his Mock examination results. But he arrived in Lagos late. The interview had already been conducted a day earlier. As Mshelia pondered what his next line of action could be, the NPA officer he was standing right before, pulled his desk drawer and removed from it a copy of an edition of New Nigerian newspaper.
Flipping through the centre spread of the newspaper, the NPA Officer showed Mshelia a job vacancy advertisement by the NRC calling for applications for the position of clerical assistants. Gazing at Mshelia, the officer asked him if he was interested in the railways job. Mshelia answered understandably in the affirmative as he was qualified for the job and having met the requirements. There and then he applied. He was to attend an interview within days. He was successful and issued with an appointment letter and posted to Bauchi. Mshelia served in the NRC for several years before he voluntarily left to further his studies.
There is no doubt many Nigerians today in their 60s or 70s would probability have had experiences similar in many ways to that of Mshelia because in the Nigeria of yore, it was the rule rather than the exception for vacant positions in government establishments and even private companies were advertised months before recruitments were conducted thereby giving prospective job seekers the opportunity to try their luck. In those years the print media, especially newspapers were regarded as the job seekers best companion, not necessarily due to the need for news but essentially because of job vacancy advertisements. Then, there was virtually little or absolutely no need for one to have a god father in order to secure a job.
But the narrative has since long changed due partly to the increase in the volume of employable youth being churned out yearly from universities and other tertiary institutions without a corresponding increase in job spaces. Consequently competition for the few existing vacancies became stiff assuming a rat-race dimension among the job seekers.
The Civil Service Commissions both at federal and state levels established and charged with the task ensuring of equitable and fair recruitment of new workforce in government agencies have failed in that regard due to the evil of corruption manifested in nepotism and favouritism. As a result, vacant positions are no longer being advertised even as recruitments and replacements daily take place silently or secretly in Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The effect of this is the appointment of mediocre workforce as those who could ordinarily be recruited on merit had no opportunity to apply since they did not know about the existence of those vacant positions ab-initio. Those who benefit from this anomalous order are top politicians and wealthy individuals who could easily pay their way through on behalf of their children and wards.
It is regrettably also a notorious fact that while some Nigerians have had to remain for several years after graduation, waiting in the wings for an opportunity, that may not even come, to get recruited into the civil service of their fatherland, a few privileged compatriots of theirs, have jobs reserved for them in government agencies pending their completion of the mandatory National Youth Service Corps. That is the extent of the degeneration of job recruitment today-no thanks to godfatherism and corruption. Getting a job simply depends on who you know and not whether you are qualified or not.
However, there is hope on the horizon that this gloomy situation is on its way out of our system soonest courtesy of a bill before the National Assembly aimed to checkmate the trend, sponsored by the Senate Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi (Ekiti South). It is expected that the bill will be passed by the legislators and be assented to by President Muhamadu Buhari without much delay.
Already, the bill christened: “A Bill for an Act to Make it an Offence for Vacant Positions in the Federal Civil Service to be Filled Without Their Being Advertised and for Other Matters Connected Therewith, 2017” introduced last July, has scaled through the second reading at last week Wednesday’s plenary at the red chamber.
While leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, which the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, later described as “a very important bill” and “a bill for the people,” Olujimi decried the current worrisome situation in the polity where employment into various MDAs were not based on merit but rather on what she rightly termed “godfatherism, favouritism, nepotism and ethnicity,” contending regrettably, that the evil quartet had “ taken the front burner” during recruitment exercises.
Stressing further the imperative of the proposed law, the Senate President posited that when passed into law, prospective job seekers would enjoy a sense of having an equal opportunity when it comes to applying for jobs. Saraki maintained that the law would ensure that heads of government agencies comply with the letters and spirit of the bill, failure of which would attract the prescribed sanctions.
“This bill will definitely help every Nigerian to feel some sense that there is an opportunity to apply and have the fighting chance. For the first time, it will also hold heads of government agencies responsible to ensure compliance or they face punitive measures. We will try and ensure that this bill is fast-tracked so that, quickly, we can pass it and can start being implemented,” Saraki assured.
Some of the general principles of the proposed law include the criminalisation of secret recruitments by various MDAs and the sanctions against violators. It also makes it mandatory for agencies to place on their notice boards all vacant positions three months before commencement of recruitment.
The bill also stipulates that vacancies and the positions with their requirements in MDAs must be sent to the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) immediately upon the existence of such vacancies for appropriate actions. Upon being notified, the FCSC, shall publish the vacancies in at least two national dailies and one local newspaper in each of the states of the federation.
Yedimakudon writes from Abuja.
Violators of the law risk a two-year imprisonment term or a fine of N 300,000 or both upon conviction. If the overwhelming support the bill got during the second reading coupled with the assurance from the Senate President are anything to go by, the bill would soon get to the relevant committee for more legislative input and action which will include a public hearing to enable stakeholders contribute to the debate on the bill.
There is no gainsaying that this is one bill that deserves the support of all well-meaning Nigerians, as it is one that will reduce, to the barest minimum, cases of secret recruitment into the Federal Civil Service which has over the years resulted in lopsidedness, mediocrity in the civil service and marginalization of some sections and strata of society. The bill will also bring about transparency, all inclusiveness, equity and fairness in consonance with federal character principle in the process of job recruitment into Nigeria’s Civil Service.
Indeed, this is a piece of legislation that is long overdue because it is unarguably one that will restore hope for the downtrodden and the less privileged youth who may not have a godfather to stand in for them to secure a job.