The civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for the constitution of an independent judicial commission of inquiry on the large scale employment scams involving key government officials just as the rights body said the National Assembly, the Nigerian Police Force, Central Bank of Nigeria; the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

It suggested that there could be a sinister connection between the spike in kidnappings for ransom all over Nigeria with the widespread commercialisation of Federal Civil Service employment slots by key officials in government and officials of the national ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC).

The rights group alleged that a lot of presidency officials have at one time or the other been accused of engaging in employment corrupt practices but these have been swept under the carpet of impunity.

HURIWA said if this menace is not tackled headlong, it could constitute a grave threat to Nigeria’s national security, adding: “There is therefore the imperative need that the ‘umbilical cord’ of employment racketeering buried deep inside the inner sanctum of Federal Government’s powerful and influential officials is excavated and dealt with.

“The enemies of transparent and merit based employments into the national agencies and institutions are very powerful men and women who are in the corridors of power. Any cosmetic measure to end the menace has failed ab initio,” HURIWA noted.

The rights group said these vital security and political institutions, including majority of the cabinet level appointees, have soiled their hands in this rapidly expanding federal jobs racketeering scheme which has become a multi-billion industry and so cannot be trusted to thoroughly, comprehensively, honestly and professionally embark on a proper, forensic and result oriented investigation into this disturbing social evil in Nigeria.

“From 2015 on inception, this administration has been dogged with widespread allegations of jobs fixing, jobs racketeering and the selective and illegal employment of unfit Nigerians only because they are children of the political, military or governmental elite just as the CBN; NNPC; NPA; Petroleum Equalization Fund; Petroleum Education Trust Fund; Federal Inland Revenue Services and the Nigerian Police Force; EFCC; are some of the many government institutions that are now viewed as cesspools of corrupt practices in the area of employment of young Nigerians.

“It is possible that desperation for jobs may have motivated some youths to embark on kidnappings to raise cash to buy up the secretly auctioned federal employment slots. Millions of university graduates are roaming major streets of Nigerian cities in search of white collar jobs because the Federal and State Governments have failed to put the enabling environment to train the youths to become entrepreneurs and creators of jobs and wealth.

“Even the much publicised entrepreneurial development fund of the CBN has been hijacked by children of top political elite. The few job slots not allocated to children of ministers and top Federal Government appointees that are available at the federal levels are now sold to the highest bidders.

“These corrupt practices have been there for years before the advent of the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. But with the emergence of the current government, the racketeering of jobs and outright commercialization of employments has assumed frightening proportions with some job slots costing as much as #10 million thereby forcing some desperate unemployed but deviant youths to embark on different types of crimes like advanced fees fraud (419) and kidnappings for ransom to raise cash needed to buy their ways into federal employment. The worst dimension is that the law enforcement agencies that should check this menace are deeply involved in the scams.

“This is now a national epidemic requiring national surgical action to be done by a committed group of judges to investigate the extent of these crimes, name, shame, and prosecute the key perpetrators and to fish out the beneficiaries so the employment slots can be filled through merits and competence.”

HURIWA dismissed what it called the drama going on in the Senate in which the Federal Character Commission is accused of auctioning employment slots to the highest bidders at N3 million per slot, noting: “It is of the position that these senators are not altruistic because the National Assembly members are the worst culprits in the crime of employment racketeering. The moment they are offered slots, this dramatic probe will die a natural death.”

The rights group dismissed the probe as a gambit because it is just like appointing owners of brothels as officers of anti-prostitution, adding: “How can the job racketeering National Assembly be trusted to probe the same crime that they are accused of by millions of Unemployed Nigerians? Who is deceiving who?”

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