By Tola Oresanwo
SIR: The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, CACOL calls on anti-corruption agencies for necessary investigation of corrupt practices of job racketeering involving some members of staff and management of Federal Character Commission (FCC).
It would be recalled that while testifying at the ongoing investigative hearing by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Parastatals, and Tertiary institutions on mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), one Haruna Kolo, an ex-aide to the chairperson of the Federal Character Commission, Muheeba Dankaka, confessed to selling federal employment slots to job seekers at the directives of his former boss.
Kolo who was a former Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System desk officer at the Federal Character Commission, in his testimony, alleged that Ms Dankaka set up a job racketeering ring, collecting money from job seekers. He stated that to avoid digital trails, the FCC boss instructed him to transfer all the money to his (Kolo) personal account and pay her in cash which he did a couple of times in her house.
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As much as we agree that the testimony of Kolo is highly revealing, we are not in any way surprised by his allegations and confessions. The reason is that job racketeering is now the order of the day in virtually all the ministries and parastatals of government. It is far easier for a camel to pass through the hole of a needle than for a qualified, young and academically sound Nigerian to secure employment in any of these ministries based on merit or even federal character which in some cases has been used to employ job seekers at the federal level. It is now a norm to sell employment slots, promote mediocrity, employ those with god-fathers, and perpetually keep the children of the poor in the unemployment web just because they cannot afford the humongous amount of money being demanded by these racketeering syndicates domiciled in all federal, state and even local government services, thereby impoverishing them and their parents who have invested a lot on their education.
We recommend immediate suspension of the chair of the commission and bringing all those responsible for these shameful and despicable acts to book. This is not the time for anti-graft agencies to slumber; they should rather swing into action and prosecute all those that have been fingered in this revelation so as to serve as a deterrent. More importantly, we hope the allegations will not be swept under the carpet and that the House of Representatives ad hoc committee should also beam its searchlights on all other MDAs of government.