‘HOW MANY SLOTS ARE YOU GIVING US?’
when there were no vacancies or any ongoing recruitment processes. The first of such letters came from a ranking traditional ruler from the Southwest, introducing someone from the Northwest for employment in NEITI.
I was mindful of the unemployment situation in the country which most certainly pushes people to desperate lengths, but I also wondered if people actually got employed this way. On my part though, I ensured we replied to such letters promptly by saying that we were not recruiting at that time, and that they would be notified whenever there were positions to be filled. We also never failed to mention that such future recruitments would be done through an open, competitive process.
It is important to state that these were not requests for their candidates to be given a fair chance to compete but to be favoured, for the process to be bent for them, or for their candidates to be employed without any process at all. The volume of the letters increased and replying to all of them would have been some work all by itself. I used to promptly minute on the letters to the appropriate departments, just for their information. However, I made a few exemptions for accepting candidates for NYSC and internship postings, but not for jobs. Even the exemptions did not apply to anyone personally known to me.
But it is not seen as unusual or unexpected for public officials, especially CEOs, to employ their relatives and others from their clans, communities, states, or tribes. Even some who are not CEOs manage to wangle such. In some instances, it is easy to know where the head of or the most powerful person in an organisation is from based on the state with the highest number of staff in the organisation or the language or the dialect mostly spoken as if it is the official language. In fact, one of the warped metrics for measuring the performance of public officials in their communities is the number of ‘their people’ that they employed.
Apart from violating the tenets of conflict of interests and advantaging those already privileged, this and other preferential approaches to recruitment invariably create a lopsided workforce, reduce the faith of young people in their country, and shut out the best and brightest where they are sorely needed. As the head of NEITI, I had relatives and siblings looking for jobs, not to speak of friends and others. The most I could do was to point them at opportunities or provide them with financial support.
The fact that you choose not to bend the system for your relatives and friends would not discourage others from pressing you to employ their own friends and relatives though. In fact, some of those making requests could be quite daring. I remember one of the traditional rulers of the FCT mounting vigil at our office gate in Asokoro with the full paraphernalia of office. He drove straight after me into the compound. I had been out in the official car, so it was difficult to claim that I was not in the office or that I was in a meeting. So, I had to see him.
He started out speaking to me in Hausa (many people do so because of my first name), and when he realised that I was Yoruba, he switched to impeccable Yoruba. He came to hand-deliver letters that he had sent earlier with CVs of his subjects that must be employed in NEITI. I respectfully explained our situation to him and promised to inform him anytime there was an opening. He sounded impressed by my explanation. I saw him off to his car, half-prostrated in respect for him, and even waited till his car left.
There were occasions when my explanation of our tight financial situation and the need to follow due process fell on deaf ears. Those seeking favours would promise to talk to higher ups in government to get our budget increased and released in full so that we could employ more people, especially their candidates. Since these were things that would happen in the future, and which I knew were likely not going to happen, I would often play along as arguing with such people would have been a waste of time anyway. There were also those who took it upon themselves to advise me to employ my own people, as ‘that is what everyone does.’ It was made clear to me that if you don’t help your own people, you would be reminded of it when you need them in the future, possibly if you are seeking elective office. A cleric once told me that I should assist people of the same faith because “this is Nigeria, everyone assists their own.”
I remember vividly an encounter with the chairman of a National Assembly committee who had sent for me. Based on prior encounters, I knew there had to be something. I went to see him with one of the directors to make sure I had a witness. Before we could finish exchanging pleasantries, he brought out an envelope and called in a man who had been waiting in the outer part of his office before our arrival.
“I know how much I put in your last budget for your audit,” he stated, matter-of-factly. “This is the man that will do the audit and here is his proposal. Go and work it out with him.”
This was the budget before I assumed office and luckily for me, the contract had been awarded. I disclosed this to him, adding that the procurement of the NEITI auditors was an extended, open process that would be difficult for anyone to control. The only thing I could do was to get our team to explain the process to his candidate so that he could submit a competitive bid in the future. He grudgingly accepted.
I developed different ways of handling these requests, from offering to visit VIPs who would have requested to see me, through painting a very grim but truthful picture of our financial situation in ways that would evoke pity, to taking time to explain why we had to do things in an open and transparent way or promising to help in other ways or when things improved. But I guess it also helped that there was nothing they could use to force my hands. Abuja is a very small place with little secrets. If I had been helping myself and those close to me, they would have got a whiff of it and there could have been investigations, especially from those with oversight powers, to put me on the spot and possibly to extract concessions out of me.
I had been in some meetings where those with oversight powers would start with aggressively picking holes in our performance, putting us on the defensive, only to end with: “we got information that you are employing. How many slots are you giving us?”
r"CPWF JT BO FEJUFE FYDFSQU GSPN i5IF "SD PG UIF 1PTTJCMF u B NFNPJS CZ 8B[JSJ "EJP PO TBMF GSPN TU %FDFNCFS