Indication has emerged that crisis is looming in the Senate over allegations of job racketeering in which some members of the Senate are alleged to have cornered job slots offered to the Senate by some agencies of the federal government.

The agencies, which are said to have been involved in secret employments for some time, ostensibly gave some slots to the senators to make them look the other way over the secret employments and job racketeering going on.

Meanwhile, the Senate Committee responsible for ensuring that job recruitments comply with the Federal Character Principle, as dictated by the Constitution, has vowed to expose the beneficiaries of the alleged job racketeering wherever they exist.

Committee Vows To Expose Culprits, Beneficiaries

Senator Danjuma La’ah, chairman of Senate Committee on Federal Character, has vowed that his committee would expose the promoters and beneficiaries of the job racket, even when he was told that beneficiaries may influence the Senate leadership to stop the investigation being conducted by his committee

He told journalists at the National Assembly yesterday that the investigation would be carried out and concluded properly no matter whose ox is gored.

“I don’t care who they have given job slots to? Is it the leadership that will give them the backing? The leadership knows that I am capable of doing my job; that is why they gave me that responsibility.

‘’I am using my position to fish out the bad elements. It is not a leadership directive. There are rules and regulations guiding us as a committee. The affected agencies should present themselves for clearance because I will not take it easy. Our people have suffered in bondage for long.

“And I am not aware that any agency gave out employment slots to the Senate. The leadership has not told us that they received any slot. So, who did they give? As the chairman of this committee, who is also representing Kaduna South, I was not in any way aware that we have been given any employment slots. So we are going ahead with our probe. I have taken it upon myself that I will probe deeply into the agencies’ claims and carry out an extensive investigation. We are going to expose all those that are tarnishing the image of the federal government,” he said.

La’ah further revealed that it had come to the knowledge of the Senate Committee that some agencies sold single employment slots for as high as N1.5 million.

“We are aware that some of the agencies are selling the employment slots at their own disposal. They are commercialising employment, selling a single slot for as much as N1.5m when we have children who have graduated from tertiary institutions who could not get any job for many years.

“It is because of the situation of this country. Some people are just taking Nigerians for granted. Our children are suffering, running from one end to another, looking for jobs. Some have become bandits and terrorists because the jobs meant for them have been cornered by some greedy people,” he added.

The senator lamented that while thousands of qualified graduates are looking for jobs, some people take advantage of their privileged positions to appropriate the available positions to members of their facilities.

“They will even go ahead to give the jobs to those who graduated with fake results,” he added.

Aggrieved Senators Set For Showdown

Meanwhile, some senators are putting pressure on the Committee to fast-track the investigation to enable the Senate sanction any of its members found to have benefitted from the racketeering of jobs by federal agencies.

A senator, who does not want his name to be published, said the fact that the leadership had allegedly collected 100 job slots and shared it among themselves shows that “we can’t win the war against the lop-sidedness that we talk about in the country”.

Another lawmaker claimed that “the issue of secret employments is already tearing the Senate apart with the allegations that the Senate leadership was offered 100 slots from a particular agency of the federal government and shared it among themselves.

“An average senator who is not a member of the executive cannot even boast of being given a single job from any federal agency to his or her constituents.

“We had information that one of the leaders shared 26 slots to people in his senatorial district. Problems are really brewing up in the Senate because the leadership has allegedly taken jobs meant for the entire Nigerians. Does it mean that you must know a senator in Nigeria before you get a job? Nothing is being done by merit and due process again. How will you get the best brains to do the jobs.

“The implication of this is that many people are being offered employment without undergoing any interview to test their capability. They just give them appointment letter because they know the leadership of the Senate. How can a single senatorial district get 26 slots when others have nothing?

“My expectation is that the slots should go round. I see no reason why each senator should not have a slot each,” he added

•Excerpted from a LEADERSHIP report.

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