10th August, 2011
Unemployed youths under the auspices of Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Transparency in Governance on Wednesday stormed the Headquarters of the Federal Character Commission in Abuja over the lopsided recruitment of 144 persons at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
The angry jobless youths called for the resignation of the acting Chairman of the Commission, Alhaji Muhammadu Ari-Gwaska whom they accused of flouting the Federal Character principle by issuing clearance certificates to government agencies and parastatals that violate federal character mandate in the recruitment.
The leader of the group, Comrade Adodo Solomon who is also the National President of Unemployed Youths Association, accused the leadership of the Commission of running the affairs of the place as a registered business enterprise for profit making and actualization of selfish goals.
Brandishing a list of successful applicants the Commission issued clearance certificate to NDLEA to employ, Comrade Solomon observed that states like Kwara where the immediate past Chairman, Prof Oba Abdulrahim Shuaibu hails from had 20 “successful candidates” and Nasarawa state where the acting Chairman hails from had 22 “successful candidates whereas some states were not represented in the successful candidates list for employment into NDLEA.
The Federal Character Commission, FCC, has a mandate to promote, monitor and enforce equitable distribution of posts in the public service.
In his reaction to the youth’s protest, the acting Chairman stated that the FCC requests for nominal rolls of manpower existing in all government agencies which it analyses on a state to state basis.
He stated that some states were found to have exceeded the maximum threshold of 3% while others are below the minimum threshold of 2.5% which he said is unfortunate.
He further stated that it is on the basis of these discoveries that the Commission draws the attention of recruiting agencies on the need to balance the workforce in future recruitment.
He absolved the Commission of any fault regarding the disparity observed from the NDLEA list which he said was part of the balancing of the workforce at the drug law enforcement agency.
By Nnamdi Felix / Abuja