The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) recruited 4, 916 workers in
the last three years without following due process, Daily Trust
investigations have shown.
An analysis of official documents revealed that over 90 percent of the
recruitment, which favoured the southern part of the country was done
from 2013 to 2015.
The vacancies were neither declared nor advertised for qualified and interested persons to compete for the positions.
The documents showed that the agency responsible for hiring workers for
the federal government recruited 486 in 2013; 4, 368 in 2014 and 50 in
2015 without adhering to federal character principles.
The federal character principle requires even distribution of the
positions across the country, but the FCSC hired 73.9 percent of the
staff from the South, leaving only 26.1 percent for the North.
The Federal Character Commission (FCC) said the recruitment “threw away
all common sense and wisdom of national cohesion and integration by
favouring other states to the detriment of others.”
The South-south and South-west geo-political zones got the lion’s share
of the recruitments over the three-year period at the expense of the
rest of the zones in the country, the official documents revealed.
South-south got 1,647 (33.6 per cent); South-west 1,336 (27.2 percent);
South-east 642 (13.1 percent); North-central 509 (10.4 percent);
North-west 447 (9.1 percent) and North-east 323 (6.6 percent).
The FCC Act No 34 of 1996 prescribes fairness and equity in the
distribution of public posts and socio-economic infrastructures among
the various federating units of the country.
The federal character commission derives its powers from sections 14 (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution.
The document seen by the Daily Trust showed that the FCSC might have
jettisoned federal character in its recruitments as Delta state alone
got 13.1 percent of the total public positions as against Jigawa and
Ebonyi states that got 0.7 percent each.
States with the highest slots are Delta, 642; Ogun 295, Oyo 254 and Edo
240, while those with least slots include the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) which got 22 and Jigawa and Ebonyi which had 36 each.
Daily Trust learnt that the FCC had written to the FCSC over the
“breach” of the federal character principles in the recruitment.
The letter dated May 3, 2016 and signed by the acting Executive Chairman
of the FCC, Dr. Shettima Bukar Abba, described the recruitment as
“glaringly lopsided” and the federal character principle as “grossly
abused.”
The FCC said it was inconceivable and unjust for the South-south to be
allocated 33.6 percent of the total candidates recruited as against 26
percent allocated to the North-east, North-west and North-central
combined.
The letter also questioned the allocation of 27.2 percent of the
candidates recruited from the South-west, more than the allocation of
the entire three zones of the North combined.
“In retrospect, this breach couldn't have occurred if the leadership of
the Civil Service Commission had listened to our clarion call for
partnership and synergy to enable a just, fair and equitable
distribution of these posts,” the letter read.
The FCC advised the FCSC to start the process of redressing the
inequality and undertake the 2016 recruitment exercise by adopting the
federal character balancing index developed by the FCC.
But the spokesperson of the FCSC, Dr Joel Oruche told the Daily Trust
that the discrepancies in the recruitments within the past few years
could be attributed to specific staff requirements from the MDAs in
specialised fields, gender factors, presidential awardees for 2012, 2013
and 2014, who were granted automatic employments, skilled physically
challenged and wider range of job selection for states with limited
skilled manpower.
“The Principle of Federal Character is a dynamic process and it requires
balancing from time to time. In addition to our effort, educational
imbalance has contributed to its slow process and it would take some
time for a full accomplishment of the desired national result. It is not
only in the North that we have this sort of imbalance, it also affects
some disadvantaged states in the South,” he said.
He said to address such discrepancies, where some states could not meet
up with the selection criteria, Kaduna and Kogi states enjoyed higher
allocation to address North-South imbalance.
The special assistant on media to FCC chairman, Mr Idris Abdullahi, said
“We seem to have an issue with the Federal Civil Service Commission.
They felt they are independent and there are many independent bodies.
The constitution is so clear that the composition of the government of
the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs
shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal
character of Nigeria,” he said.
Source: Daily Trust Newspaper
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