The Nigerian Senate has warned Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the federal government against the illegal activity of secret recruitment.
The Senate noted that thousands of Nigerians are jobless while some top government officials carry out secret recruitment of their own people and hide under the pretense of employment embargo on government jobs to deny other qualified citizens.
The red chamber of the National Assembly, therefore, charged the affected government officials to henceforth carry out open recruitment or provide official evidence of the embargo on employment.
The observation was made by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character Commission and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Danjuma La’ah.
He spoke on Wednesday when he defended the 2022 budget report before the Appropriation panel of the red chamber.
In his view, youth unemployment is a major factor contributing to the security challenges facing Nigeria and must be addressed squarely for the country to make progress.
To this end, he said his committee had mandated all the MDAs to increase their personnel cost with a view to opening up spaces for the employment of jobless Nigerians.
In his words, “Some people are taking advantage of the situation (embargo on employment) but our committee is desirous to doing the right thing.
We are determined that there are jobs for the graduates we have in this country, no matter what it takes.
“We discovered that young Nigerians who graduated from higher institutions some 15 years ago had yet to gain employment.
“The development had aggravated insecurity all over the places including insurgency, banditry, kidnapping and other criminal activities.
“Our committee has been going to ministries, departments and agencies of government that they must start recruitment instead of doing secret replacements.
“We had even asked them to increase the personnel cost in their budgets so that they could employ people.
Many people are being secretly employed but those in charge are claiming that there is embargo on employment. I don’t know where they got that from.
“We have been asking them. The President has not opened his mouth to say that there is embargo on employment.
“There is no embargo anywhere but some of the officials of government are so myopic that they decide to take advantage of the situation.
I have been challenging those who are engaging in secret recruitments claiming there is embargo to show us where they got the information from.
“This is the time for them to increase their personnel cost and make provision for employment.
People are retiring voluntarily but we don’t know how they are being replaced. We must know the particular number of people they want to employ.”
Source; Bibian Anekwe News
