Chukwu David 
Disturbed by the alleged uncontrollable job racketeering going on in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government, the Senate on Tuesday, said it would consider stiffer sanctions against defaulters, to effectively check the menace.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Character and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator Allwell Onyesoh (Rivers East) made the disclosure after an interactive session of the Committee with the Management of Federal Character Commission.
Members of the Committee were highly agitated that job racketeering of monumental proportions were allegedly going on in government establishments, in total disregard for federal character principles in job recruitment and other irregularities that violate the Constitution of Nigeria.
Senator Onyesoh while addressing journalists, said that Nigeria was sitting on a keg of gun powder, as people react to issues based on emotion, warning that Nigerians had gotten to a point where they no longer looked at issues deeply.
According to the concerned lawmaker, “Nigerians now look at issues from the social media perspective, where you just see or hear something, you move it on, copy and send to the next person. Nobody tries to clarify, no investigation any more.
“It is something that is very dangerous and it is easy to ignite a place. A simple statement like, oh this thing is out we are not getting it. There is job there, they are employing secretly, is enough to cause problem.
“And the purview of FCC covers that. We felt it is proper to call them and we sit down, dot the ‘I’ and cross the ‘t’, make every of their activities more transparent, more glaringly clear for people to see. We want to open up the space.”
He said that the essence of the federal character Commission is to create unity, fairness and equity, adding that “you can’t have that if someone is feeling rejected, feeling not carried along.
“You must put some sanctions if you want things to work. We are considering stiffer penalties; there must be consequence for everything” adding that “this is one of the few committees that derives it’s power from the constitution”.
Earlier, the Chairperson of the Federal Character Commission, Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka, denied that there was job sales under her watch, claiming that it happened in the past when “the place was like a market place”.
She urged the Committee to help the Commission to be able to correct the past wrongs and help them with their budget as the 2024 capital provision approved for them by the National Assembly was reduced to zero by Budget and Planning Office.
