By Emeka Nze
Abuja
Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Prof Shuiaibu Oba Abdulraheem, has declared that any state with less than 2.5 percent representation in the staff distribution of any establishment in the civil service is underrepresented.
Abduraheem, who was the guest of the Public Service Committee of the national conference sitting at the NICON Luxury Hotel in Abuja listed Ebonyi, Lagos, Benue, Rivers and all the northern states excluding Kaduna were such disadvantaged states that do not have adequate representation in the civil service.
The FCC chairman stated that his agency was established to handle two core areas which include ensuring an equitable distribution of workers, especially at the top echelon of the civil service.
He also said it is also to ensure that public infrastructure and social amenities are fairly distributed among the component states of the federation.
Abdulraheem noted that while his commission had discharged the first mandate very well, it was hampered by funding to enable it go round the country to get a first hand information of the equitable distribution of such infrastructure in all parts of the country.
The commission chair also told the committee he had advised the Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro, not to embark on the fatal recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), or if he insisted, he should stagger the exercise which claimed the lives of some job seekers, pointing out that he might have considered his commitment to the consultants engaged to handle the exercise.
The former university don, who stated that the establishment fell short of experienced technocrats to assist it in managing certain aspects of the functions, clarified that his commission is not a recruitment agency.
He stated that the commission had helped to prevent some chief executives of some government establishment from carrying out selective recruitment.
Abdulraheem also in his submission debunked the claim in some quarters that the civil service is bloated and describing job creation as a social service which necessarily has to be so as long as government can afford to pay salaries.
On the extension of their operations to the presidency, Abdulraheem said the only way to ensure the appointment of ministers meet the specifications of their commission, adding the FCC was still talking to the presidency to advertise the appointment of aides and other vacancies at the presidency.
