For a long time in our country, and this is a widely and wholly accepted truth, the only way to get a job in Nigeria is just to know somebody at the top or buy the job completely from somebody at the helm of affairs. But today, this seems to be the outlier now rather than the room, thanks to one woman, Dr Muheeba Dankaka, the current chairperson of the Federal Character Commission, FCC.
The mandate the president gave to the chairman of the FCC is simple and clear as President Muhammadu Buhari, in unmistaken terms, asked her to go and end job racketeering and ensure evenness and fairplay in federal appointments. Today, in fulfilment of the mandate and task given to her by Mr President, she has taken neccessary steps to reposition the commission to achieve this mandate. What is her crime?
The mandate of the FCC is to protect the interest of every state in employment and project placements by the federal government and that is exactly what the FCC under the able leadership of Dr Muheeba Dankaka is seen to be implementing and no state seems to be complaining but only from within the commission – a few commissioners who today are at daggers drawn with their boss. Why? Greed is the answer.
Indeed, Nigerians were shocked recently when some disgruntled elements wrote a petition against the chairperson of the commission, Dr Dankaka, detailing her incompetence, abuse of office and sheer malfeasance bordering on job rackeetering, lopsided recruitment, extra budgetary spending and indiscriminate grants of recruitment waivers to ministries, departments and agencies in total violations of the Act establishing the commission, an accusation which the commission frontally denied.
If there is one thing that Nigerians should check and eventually this would lead them to applaud the fact that Muheeba Dankaka has truthfully ensured the mandate of ensuring the equitable distributions of jobs and execution of projects among the distributive units of the country in total compliance with the Act that created the commission is holistically adhered to. Her doing and ensuring the adherance to the primary objective of the Act is not guilty as alleged as any other objectives and responsibilities, according to the Act are secondary.
The main objective of the Act is to ensure that no state in the federation is sidelined in the scheme of recruitment, projects execution, etc.The commission is on record to have sanctioned many MDAs who are in breach of this provision of the Act.
These allegations should be seen by all Nigerians as a caimpaign of calumny against the chairperson of the commission by disgruntled elements who do not agree whth the new dawn at the commission and are insisting on the adherance to the business as usual dispensation whose tenure has elapsed since the strong and amiable Dankaka ascended the leadership of FCC.
What happens when it is alleged that the chairman of the commissim is rumoured to be brazenly abusing the mandate of the commission? Is it not a case of an arbiter that is entrusted with the constitutional mandate of supervising other MDAs now entrapped in a war of attrition with other commissioners of the commission? It is a total plot by those commissioners, their cohorts and paymaster to stop a good work from achieving its aim for their singular personal benefits.
When other MDAs go against the provisions of this Act it is the job of the commission to apply sanctions and call the agency to order. What happens when the integrity of the leadership of the commission is called to question and its reputation scandalised in the media as encling impunity and executive rascality? The centre would never hold if this is the aim of the petitioners, they have failed. They are trying the foundation of justice and equity which Dr Muheeba Dankaka is building at the commission as regards employment and projects execution. They must be told to stop.
The growing pains of mass unemployment in our land and scorching frustrations among the youth of our country are enough embarrassment already to us as a nation. But for the commissioners of the commission charged with the responsibilities of assisting the chairman to ensure that the available jobs in Nigeria are evenly distributed limiting their jobs now to being calumnists and petition peddlers against their boss is really dumbfounding.
They must be called to order to stop the peddling of the fog doubt, haze of mistrust and the ambiance of bad blood which have today taken over the commission. This is ensuing when Nigerian graduates are dangerously and pathetically begging for jobs like street urchins begging for alms.
Just imagine the trauma the chairman of the FCC should be going through right now even when she has changed things for the better in the commission because of the hawks who are out to change the narrative for their benefits alone.
Thank God that Dr Muheeba Dankaka being a woman of integrity and strong character is unperturbed because she knows the victory of good over evil is sure.
Musawa writes from Abuja via [email protected]
