The Federal Character Commission says it is
unaware of a waiver authorising the Central Bank
of Nigeria to conduct a secret recruitment of
hundreds of new employees, comprising dozens of
family members of serving and past senior
government officials, including President
Muhammadu Buhari’s nephew.
The acting chairman of the Federal Character
Commission, Shettima Abba, told PREMIUM TIMES
on Thursday that following media reports and
public outcry in response to the recruitment, the
commission wrote to the CBN demanding its staff
list from 2013 to 2015.
Mr. Abba said the response from the CBN would
enable the Commission confirm whether the
recruitment was done in accordance with the law.
The bank has two weeks — up to next Tuesday — to
respond to the letter, he said.
But the chairman said his office was not aware the
CBN was granted any waiver to carry out the
controversial recruitment, saying the last waiver to
the bank was in 2013.
“Prior to my appointment, details from the file
showed that by early part of 2013 CBN requested for
waiver to enable them carry out recruitment of
some professional staff, including doctors, nurses,
mid-wives, engineers and lawyers, etc,” Mr. Abba
said.
“For one reason or the other, they (CBN) did not
conclude the recruitment before they wrote back to
say they had suspended the recruitment, and that
they would need to write again for re-validation.
Towards the end of 2013, they wrote again for re-
validation, which was granted.”
The chairman said available records confirmed that
the recruitment was carried out, as candidates were
invited for interview in three centres, including
Abuja, Lagos and one other city, with the committee
in charge of financial services at the Character
Commission invited to monitor the exercise.
Mr. Abba said although the CBN indicated interest
in 2015 to recruit a number of junior staff as money
counters, drivers, cooks, clerks and so on, for all its
37 zones across the country, he was not aware of
any fresh waiver granted since 2013.
“If an agency gets a waiver, it will lapse after three
months if the recruitment process is not concluded.
The agency has to write again for re-validation,”
the chairman explained.
“In the records with the Commission, they (CBN)
have several requests for waivers, but I cannot say
how many. I don’t know whether there has been a
new request from them in recent times. Since I
came in, I only acted, looking at previous records.
“Since junior workers cannot be recruited in Abuja,
they (CBN) were advised to find a way of recruiting
locally in the catchment areas. This swelled the
number of people recruited,” he said.
Details of the recruitment, first reported by news
website, SaharaReporters, angered many Nigerians
in a country with a growing rate of unemployment.
Under the Federal Character Commission regulation,
2008, recruitment into government offices are to be
duly advertised in at least two national newspapers
giving qualified Nigerians a minimum of six weeks
to apply.
The CBN recruitment did not follow that rule,
Saharareporters reported.
Worse, the list of candidates secretly recruited by
the CBN, according to the website, included
President Buhari’s nephew, former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar’s daughter, Minister of State for
Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu’s son, and
former Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Ghali Na’aba’s daughter.
Others are Nigeria’s Police Inspector-General,
Solomon Arase’s daughter, and Minister of Internal
Affairs, Abdulrahman Danbazzau’s son, among
others.
CBN’s acting Director of Corporate Communications,
Isaac Okorafor, told PREMIUM TIMES last week the
bank did nothing illegal, as it got an approval from
the Federal Character Commission to carry out
“targeted recruitment of specialists” without
advertisement.
The chairman of the FCC, Mr. Abba, said all
Nigerians, irrespective of parentage or political
affiliation, have equal right of being employed in
any organisation. He said his organisation was
concerned more with due process and compliance
with the federal character principles.
“The constitution says there must be equity, equal
opportunity and equal access to all manner of
persons. The constitution gives all the states of the
federation equal opportunity to be employed,” he
said.
“For the fact that you are Atiku’ son; a minister or
president’s daughter does not disqualify you from
getting job anywhere in Nigeria, so far as you
follow due process and you have the requisite
qualification.”
Civil society groups and lawyers on Thursday
criticized the exercise, demanding the immediate
withdrawal of the employment offers.
The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, CENSOJ,
Eze Onyekpere, said the exercise portrayed the
nature of governance in Nigeria, “characterized by
hypocrisy, patronage networks, steeped in
mediocrity and lacking in merit and strivings for
the best person for the job”.
Premium Times
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