An ambitious pledge by the
Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, Olajumoke Akinjide, of
“massive” recruitment before year ending, has turned out an elaborate
deception, with just days away from December 31, 2012.
New slots of about 10,000 jobs were to be provided
for Abuja under the federal government subsidy reinvestment programme, the
minister had said.
But days to the year’s close, the openings are
nowhere near reality. Neither the advertisement, registration, pre-selection
calls, nor recruitment tests have taken place.
Weeks of inquiries have proven the idea of
preliminary registration for the jobs as Ms. Akinjide announced separately in
August and November, to not only be a ruse, but a subject unknown to several
officials of the FCT administration. One official said the selection had been
concluded since March.
The contradictions come as the intervention
programme, the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P, faces
mounting criticisms over its failure to deliver on proposed projects, with
critics dismissing the initiative as a drain pipe that squanders badly needed
funds, while unemployment, which it was partly meant to address nationwide,
escalates.
If anything, the inconsistencies at the Abuja
ministry point to the indifference authorities accord a pressing national need
as jobs creation, which are often eagerly promised by officials, but hardly
delivered.
Ms. Akinjide gave her promise as a passing remark
while addressing two women groups in August and November.
“There will be massive employment before the end of
this year and we have started registration of unemployed women and youth in the
FCT,” the minister said in a remark to the National Council for Women
Societies, Abuja chapter, who visited her office on November 13.
Applicants were to be “be employed into different
fields and also vocation acquisition programmes,” of the SURE-P plan, the
minister said.
To demonstrate seriousness, Ms. Akinjide advised
interested women and youth to register with the FCT Social Development
Secretariat as of November.
No registration
Repeated visits to the office and contacts to other
arms of the FCT administration supposedly responsible for the ‘recruitment’
since November have proven no such job drives exist, and officials have consistently
denied knowledge of any job-related registration.
At various units of the FCT Secretariat at Area 10,
Garki, Abuja, a week after the minister’s promise, all key officials spoken to
said they were unaware of the plans. PREMIUM TIMES also observed no registration
took place.
“As you can see, there is nothing like that going
on, maybe you could get further clarification from the minister’s office,” one
official said on anonymity, fearing sanctions if he were identified.
Despite the apparent absence of the existence, a
spokesperson for the minister, Oluyinka Akintunde, insisted the plan was afoot.
Mr. Akintunde denied the minister had misled the
unemployed by announcing a non-existent exercise, possibly as a passing
political remark. He said as part of the SURE-P, the programme was being
administered by a central presidential task team.
He also said the plan was targeted at the
grassroots and the recruitment was meant to done on the basis of electoral
Wards.
“There are provisions made for these things, and
there are people working on them,” Mr. Akintunde insisted. “The minister did
not lie.”
Yet, he provided no verifiable detail about where
the listings were actually done, and no explanation was given as to why, if the
registration existed elsewhere, Ms. Akinjide had given a different venue.
Again, there were no truly existed plans for the
exercise elsewhere, as PREMIUM TIMES found none ongoing within Abuja as the
minister claimed.
At one of the FCT units our reporters were referred
to for clarification, an official who spoke under anonymity said the so called
grassroots registrations had been completed since March, and 15,000-more than
the 10,000 required- were captured.
“We even had excess application,” the staff said.
Rosy initiative, fat budget,
no delivery
At least 370,000 jobs are to be created under the
SURE-P, with each state and Abuja providing 10,000 in partnership with the
federal government.
A second component of the programme is tagged the
Graduate Internship Scheme, GIS, designed to enhance the employability of
another 100,000 unemployed graduates across the federation. That will involve
internship placements with interested companies.
A new website has recently been dedicated for
registration into the GIS.
But the 470,000 total slots, a potentially
significant figure for an ever-soaring unemployment rate, have barely taken off
months even at the state level, months after the SURE-P was created.
The programmer’s dismal performance, despite its
huge multibillion budget, recently alarmed federal lawmakers.
At a budget meeting a fortnight ago, the National
Assembly joint committee on petroleum downstream, declared the programme a scam
that has failed to keep any of its promises of job creation, and accused
Christopher Kolade-led SURE-P committee of reckless spending.
The lawmakers accused the subsidy committee of
duplicating projects with ministries, and defrauding the nation by making
double payments for projects also financed by the ministries.
Most shocking, the committee found out how the
committee claimed spending N2.2 billion on “secretariat services” and another
N75 million on travels between July and October.
Another N27 billion was also spent on “Public Works
for Youths”, and N8.9bn for the purchase of 800 buses. Details of how the monies
were allocated were not provided to the lawmakers.
“The SURE-P funds should not be seen as crude oil
money which everybody is sharing,” Magnus Abe, the Chairman of the Senate
Downstream Petroleum Committee warned as the committee pressed for more information.
For 2013, SURE-P is to spend N273.52 billion.
At a separate meeting, Mr. Kolade claimed the
amount involved with office administration was N1 billion and not N2.2 billion
as earlier stated. He knocked off criticisms trailing the committee’s failings
by declaring he will not quit.
“I will not quit, if you attack me, I will defend
myself. The National Assembly and the SURE-P Committee and everybody are
supposed to be working for Nigerians not individuals,” he was quoted as saying
at a media luncheon in Lagos.
Across the states, the confusion has played out,
with barely any state releasing provable data of how much of the 10,000 jobs
have been in the months that SURE-P existed.
PREMIUM TIMES’ attention was first drawn to Ms.
Akinjide’s bogus job announcement for Abuja, after early responders to her
notice of registration alerted that no such exercise was taking place at the
designated venue.
Reporters, who visited the secretariat and the FCT
head office at Area 11 repeatedly, confirmed same to be true.
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