The Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs Chaired by Senator Allwell Onyesoh( Rivers East) on Wednesday expressed misgivings with job allocation by the National Assembly Service Commission(NASC), and called for further details to be supplied so as not to shortchanged any zone or region.
This position was taken when Chairman and management of NASC led by Amshi Ahmed Kadi had an interactive session with the Committee at the National Assembly.
Senator Onyesoh opined that a situation where by some states or regions appeared to be over represented but going down it became cleared that the reverse was the case does not reflect the letters of federal character as enshrined in the constitution.
He therefore called for all the details about jobs allocation from state to local government to be supplied so as to have a clear picture in order to arrived at the right decision going forward.
“The reason we asked for further explanation is because when you lump everything together, it doesn’t answer the question explicitly. So for us to get to the root, we asked for the explanation in documents, breaking it down to states and then to LGs because they have a situation that a region/zone has 1024 workers in one place out of 3000. You will now go home with the feeling that this zone is over represented. And then you will be shocked to find out that two or three states in that zone do not even have anything.
“The Federal Character Commission is to ensure that people get what they rightly deserve, so that they have that sense of belonging. That’s the essence of Federal Character. And once you don’t do that, you defeat the whole essence and purpose of everything. So that is why we asked for for the presentation of documents up to local government levels”
Speaking further, He said the information from the FCC would enable his panel to take a decision on the way forward and how to ensure provision of jobs to the teeming unemployed graduates in the country.
“We are expecting them to give us details of the information we requested from them. We have demanded details of the recruitment exercise they’ve carried out since the so-called embargo the MDAs claimed is on employment.
“We also want to know the criteria the MDAs are adopting to carry out the replacement of retired and dead staff.
“We are also aware that some people have left the service voluntarily. How were they replaced? Did the process follow federal character principles?
“When we get their response, we would be able to write our report and make necessary recommendations to the Senate for the required actions”,he added.
Earlier in his submission, the Executive Chairman of NASC said that, since the National Assembly workforce came into existence since 2018, they have neither employed nor replaced but presently there are about 300 vacancies to be filled.
The Chairman of the Committee warned that, there will be sanctions if at the end of the day it is observed that lack of strict adherence to the principles of federal character as enshrined in the constitution was done on purpose, then the appropriate sanctions will be meted out
