Job racketeering has been going on for years in Nigeria’s civil service. The current probe of the malaise in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAS) merely unravelled the alarming level at which the corrupt practice has reached. The ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives currently probing the issue had received petitions against 39 MDAs. But it decided to investigate over 600 of the 900 Federal Government agencies. At the centre of this infraction is the Federal Character Commission (FCC).
In a particular interesting case, a former desk officer at the FCC, Mr. Haruna Kolo, alleged that he sold federal employment slots amounting to millions of naira to job seekers at the directive of the Chairperson of the FCC, Mrs. Muheeba Dankaka. Kolo’s three bank accounts are said to contain evidence of transactions amounting to N75 million. The man further alleged that he remitted all the money paid to his account to Mrs. Dankaka in cash, as the woman purportedly instructed him to do. This was to avoid any digital trace of the transactions.
Recently, 14 beneficiaries even admitted receiving salaries from the Federal Government without job placements. They told the House committee that their salaries were paid on the porous Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a platform of the Federal Government that processes payment of salaries for federal civil servants. For this favour, the beneficiaries said they paid money into the account of Kolo.
In compensation for a job well done, the FCC Chairperson allegedly offered Kolo and three other people, including her sibling, jobs at the Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON). Mrs Dankaka has, however, denied the allegations. She claimed that Kolo and some others forged her signature to give employment to job seekers without her approval.
It is worthy to note that the FCC is an agency of government established to ensure transparency and equity in the composition of federal appointments. It clears employment by all government agencies by ensuring that they reflect the federal character principle as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). This is to promote national unity and ensure that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states, ethnic or other sectional groups in government or any of its agencies. The Federal Character Commission Act further gives the commission the power to work out an equitable formula for the distribution of all cadres of posts in the civil and public services of the federation and of the states.
Unfortunately, many agencies of government, including the FCC, do not observe this federal character principle, as they engage in lopsided employment of people. Merit is relegated to the background while nepotism, ethnicity and other primordial considerations are given prime of place. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) observed in a report in 2020 that 32 per cent of Nigerians paid bribe to secure jobs in the public service in 2019. The House ad hoc committee has also accused the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of employing 300 staff between 2015 and 2023 without advertisement, shortlisting and interview of job seekers. JAMB denied the allegation though.
The job racketeering discovery at the FCC may be the tip of the iceberg if a thorough investigation is carried out in federal universities and such agencies as the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Police and so on.
It is obvious that lack of jobs is what has fuelled this selling of jobs at the MDAs. Pegged officially at 33.3 per cent, the rate of unemployment in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world. Youth unemployment is worse. Millions of our youths graduate from our various institutions of higher learning every year, yet the jobs are not there to absorb them. Rather than expand, some companies are folding up. Some others are relocating to other countries. The other day, it was reported that pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, has shut down its operations in Nigeria. Before now, companies like Michelin, Dunlop and many others had relocated from Nigeria due to harsh operating environment.
How the probe of the FCC and others is handled will impact on the image of the country. Already, Nigeria is ranked among countries with high corruption index. Every year, the country performs woefully on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. This is why this probe should be holistic, thorough, and transparent. Its outcome should also be made public. Let it not be like some past highfalutin probes that ended up achieving nothing in terms of adequate punishment for offenders. In this instant case, whoever is found culpable should be made to face the full wrath of the law. Anti-corruption agencies should move in and do their work.