Soon after the Ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives commenced investigation into alleged job racketeering by ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government, there were pockets of protests by some civil society groups, despite damning revelations being made. JOSHUA EGBODO writes as the panel winds down the probe
Specific focus
While in the opinion of many analysts, issues of job sales and other forms of racketeering have almost become a norm in the Nigerian civil service, the House of Representatives committee investigating the matter, said during one of its sittings that it had received petitions against 39 MDAs.
Outside the alleged sale of job slots to employment-seeking Nigerians, the committee got the mandate to also investigate the reported cases of abuse of the federal government Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS) and other recruitment abuses. Chairman Adhoc Committee on Investigation of Job Racketeering Yusuf Gagdi named some of the MDAs in focus to include the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Budget Office of the Federaion, IPPIS, Federal Civil Service Commission and more, disclosing that the committee would, however, engage about 600 MDAs with a view to unearthing the level to which cases of malfeasance in the federal civil service have gotten.
Deeper revelations
It is no longer news that a lot of rot was said to have been going on in the FCC, as well as other federal government MDAs. At the FCC, there was the inglorious revelations involving its former staff member, Haruna Kolo, and the Chairman, Farida Dankaka over the alleged sale of job slots. Kolo said he took money from applicants as a proxy for Dankaka, who, however, publicly swore that nothing of such ever happened between them.
Those who suffered the alleged criminal schemings revealed how they coughed out millions of Naira in bribes to secure jobs which may not have been real. There were also the reported practice of employment waiver breaches by MDAs. Head of the Civil Service of the Federation disclosed that several of the agencies involved often employ personnel above the approved number, cadres other than the ones requested for and approved through waivers, and also outside the specific areas of needs as applied for.
Two of the victims who appeared before the Adamu Yusuf Gagdi-led committee last week, Abdulmalik Isah Ahmed and Ali Muhammed Yero said they paid the sum of one million naira and two million naira respectively to Haruna Kolo of the Federal Character Commission. According to Abdulmalik Ahmed, their employment letters which were earlier issued to 27 of them were retrieved at a meeting on the 17th of July 2023 by a committee which subsequently collected their original appointment letters.
“Haruna Kolo told me the slot (which was to be given) was from the Chairperson of the Commission(FCC) that is why I would be captured under IPPIS platform. Badamasi brought the employment letter with some documents for me on the 5th of August 2022, Badamasi took me to Treasury House in Abuja where Kolo Haruna took me to the IPPIS office and I was captured on IPPIS platform”, Yero told the panel.
Also testifying, Abdulmalik Isa Ahmed said that though his employment letter has been retrieved, he still received salary up till date despite not been posted by the commission. Displaying a document, he said, “This is the list of five among us who have stopped receiving their pay though I still receive my salary up to date. When we were pressurising the Commission, we sent this documents to Badamasi Jalo, already this document has been signed for the enrolment of some of us that have stopped receiving pay.
Speaking on how he got to know Haruna Kolo, Abdulmalik said, “I got to know Kolo through the driver of Taraba Commissioner. I transferred a million Naira to Kolo’s account on the arrangement that, because I was told that, the monthly pay is about N140,000 or N130,000. So, we agreed on N1.5million with the driver first. We bargained with the driver on behalf of Kolo. His name is Yusha’u Gambo.
“Kolo Haruna and Badamasi told me my posting letter will be ready after two weeks and I got my first salary in January 2023, five months after the enrollment by IPPIS, after that, Badamasi created a WhatsApp group platform for us and we came in February 2023 to see the Director, Human Resources for posting because Kolo could no longer be reached on phone, and that the Chairman secured a job for him at AMCON in Lagos.
“Photo copies of our employment letters were collected by the Director of Human Resources for posting once he got clearance from the Chairperson. On Thursday 13th July 2023, I received a message from Gideon Zubairu a staff in the Human Resources that we should come for a meeting, on Monday 17th July 2023”. It was at the said meeting the engagement letters were retrieved.
But the CSOs’ interventions
Soon after the ongoing investigation commenced, a women group under aegis of The Middlebelt and North Central Association of Women (MNAW), came public to warn that it would resist blackmail, ethnic and other biases against Chairman of the FCC, Farida Dankaka, expressing strong opposition to what it called untold and unwarranted attacks on the person of the Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission. The group in a statement made available to journalists on July 30 in Abuja, described Dankaka as “our very own Ambassador and an Arewa woman leader”, saying “We vehemently oppose the religious bias, gender maltreatment, blackmail tactics, including using the Chairperson’s religion as a tool to blackmail her to a pulp.
It stated further, “We condemn and discountenance these attitudes and call for an immediate halt of the investigation by the Ad-hoc committee, because it has gone beyond the normal norm, as it is rather being used as a witch-hunt by aggrieved members of the Labour Party (LP) and disgruntled Commissioners who are only out to remove the Chairperson, so as to gain unfettered access to the treasury of the Commission”.
In the statement signed by National Convener of the the group, Dr Onoche Agnes Agims and Secretary, Madam Esther Tor, the group also condemned the gangster and gestapo approach by the lawmakers, adding that it had monitored the “campaigns of calumny by a few Labour Party (LP) committee members in connivance with some Commissioners from few states” with dissatisfaction.
“It behooves on well-meaning Nigerians to look carefully at the clandestine plots of the honourable members in seeking the assistance of disgruntled commissioners who are hell-bent on tarnishing the image of the Commission, all in a bid for stomach infrastructure and mesh of porridge.
“We emphatically state that ‘enough is enough’ of these wild goose chase of the honourable members from the Southeast and their ilk, including Commissioners who are hell-bent on tarnishing the hard-earned reputation of not only the Commission, but that of Dr Muheeba Dankaka,” the group said.
It concluded that “We therefore pass a vote of confidence on Dr Dankaka’s sterling leadership of the FCC and kindly advise that she should be allowed to concentrate on her job and not be distracted by any person or authority,” adding that “we have discovered that these detractors are only out to milk and empty the treasury of the FCC…”.
Seemingly unperturbed by such insinuations, which many analysts considered an attempted move at distracting the committee, the Gagdi-led panel continued without response to same, and the revelations kept flowing to the consternation of many Nigerians.
However, another coalition of civil society organisations; Coalition of Concerned Civil Society Activists, led by Comrade Ishaya Isa Saka and spokesperson, Comrade Bamidele Akanbi later also expressed disagreement with the committee, saying that its approach was tantamount to muzzling the Chairman of FCC, Dankaka, berating “the shoddy treatment meted out to the Executive Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission (FCC)”.
In its opinion, the issue was taking a dimension of a witch-hunt, “because her organisation has been hand-picked with different stories emanating from the Commission as a result of a gang-up of some Federal Commissioners and disgruntled former staff Haruna Kolo.
It stated “We are compelled to react due to the fact that the FCC has been on media trial for the past three weeks with dirty linen from the Commission dished and served to the Nigerian public by the Ad-hoc Committee and arm-twisting the Management of FCC, not to address the press to rebuff and do a rejoinder of all the unhealthy, bias statements and mischievous fallacies dished to the public.
“We condemn, in the strongest terms possible, this lackluster attitude of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee led by Hon. Yusuf Gagdi,” adding, “He who asks for equity must come with clean hands. You cannot lampoon and bastardize the hard-earned image of the chairperson of FCC and, at the same time, not allow her and her loyal and patriotic commissioners at FCC to respond.
“The Ad-hoc Committee should have known better, in the first instance, that it is investigating the issues and conduct itself in a professional manner, instead of the media trial the Commission has gone through, maligning the image and reputation of the chairperson to high heavens all in a bid to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it”.
In who’s interest?
While the investigation yet lasts, questions have been raised by many Nigerians on why the rush by the CSOs to start taking positions for or against any of the parties involved.
Chairman of the committee, Gagdi had in one of the sessions cautioned that “we have resolved that no commissioner should address the press. Don’t preempt our investigation.Federal Character please allow us to do justice…including the chairman, secretary, nobody from federal character should address the press on the pending investigation”. Beyond that, the committee has repeatedly promised fairness and equity in the exercise which gradually winding down.
Granted, therefore, that the personalities involved have heeded the committee’s words of caution by not going outside the panel sessions to make statements, so why the CSOs? Analysts are of the demand that such groups should make known, in who’s interest they are acting; Nigeria, the greater majority of Nigerians or an individual, in view that the investigation is still running.