Many eminent Nigerians have condemned the
N12,000 levy imposed on candidates seeking employment into the Ogun
State civil service by the state government.
Those who spoke with Daily Independent condemned the action of the government, saying it amounts to further impoverishment of the poor and downtrodden in the society.
The state government had on July 15, published an advertisement asking
university graduates to apply for employment into professional cadres in
its civil service.
It said in the advertisement signed by A.O.
Adeyemi, a Permanent Secretary, that a competitive examination to be
conducted by the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) is for
entry into the Administrative Officer, Accountant, Auditor,
Statistician, Registrar of Cooperatives, Produce Officer, Commercial
Officer, Inspector of Taxes, Engineer (Civil, Mechanical), Information
Officer, Education Officer and Town Planning Officer cadres on relevant
entry grade levels in accordance with the provisions of schemes of
service in the Ogun State Civil Service.
It is scheduled to begin in August 2013.
Candidates were enjoined to obtain Guaranty Trust Bank teller from the
Ogun State Civil Service Commission, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, after payment
of non-refundable examination fee of N12, 000.00 into Account No.
0032630816.
Renowned constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), Itse Sagay, while reacting to the development, said the
state government through this action has already blacklisted the
underprivileged in the society from applying for the vacancies.
He
said with the amount being asked from prospective job applicants, only
those who are from a good background and those who already have jobs can
qualify for the emplyment.
“I think it is wrong for the state
government to have done that. That will further complicate the problem
of the man who is looking for a job. Where is he going to get the money
from?
“It means only people who are well-off, or maybe somebody who
already has a job and is looking for a better one that can apply. So, I
believe it is wrong for the state government to have done that,” Sagay
said.
Another Lagos based SAN, Ladi Rotimi-Williams, also took a
swipe at the action of the state government, saying it is primitive and
should be reconsidered as it will further compound the problems of the
masses.
“Somebody who is unemployed, somebody who does not know
where the next meal will come from, you are now asking him to bring
money for a form. Upon collection of this form, it is not as if the
applicant is hundred per cent sure that he will get the job.
“I
think the Ogun State Government should reconsider their policy. It is
primitive and will further compound the problem of the downtrodden in
the society,” he said.
To Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA), Ikeja branch, Monday Onyekachi Ubani, the action of the Ogun
State Government is disgraceful and embarrassing, pointing out that it
smirks of exploitation of the
masses.
According to Ubani, it is
the responsibility of government to provide jobs for the masses and this
should be done without any form of financial demand from the
applicants.
“If that is true, then it is very exploitative and very disgraceful and embarrassing for the Ogun State Government to do that.
“Are they saying that whoever pays the money will be assured of
automatic employment in the first place? So, if you pay the money and
you do not get employment are they going to refund the N12,000?”
In
his own reaction, constitutional lawyer, Fred Agbaje, believes that the
Ogun State Government through the action has turned itself into a
money-making venture at the expense of the electorate it is meant to
cater for.
While advising prospective applicants not to pay the
stipulated fees, he said the state government if not privy to the sham
should issue a statement distancing itself and also take disciplinary
action against the agency in charge of the employment scheme.
Henry
Boyo, a renowned economist, said the action of the state government is
condemnable and that well-meaning Nigerians should rise and condemn it
in its totality.
Boyo further argued that it is the responsibility
of government to create jobs for the citizenry and not to make the
process cumbersome through collection of outrageous fees which they know
many applicants will not be able to afford.
“That is not
appropriate. It is the duty of the government to create an enabling
environment and make it easy for people to get jobs. Every normal human
being must be thinking alike on this issue and that is the action of the
government is callous.
“You don’t have to go to school or be
educated to know that this is a wrong thing to do by a government. The
action is condemnable and I implore every right thinking Nigerian to
speak out against it,” Boyo added.
A university teacher, Francis
Ogbimi, also disapproved the action, saying the state government is
desperately looking for money through the exploitation of the masses.
Describing the N12,000 application fee as outrageous, Ogbimi said the
only solution to the issue of unemployment in the country is for the
government to train the graduates and make them self-dependent in any
area they may find themselves in life.
A former commissioner in the
Ogun State Civil Service Commission, Semiu Sodipo, also faulted the
charging of N12,000 by the ASCON/Ogun government on unemployed and
already employed civil servants who are seeking transfer into the
professional cadre in the service.
Sodipo, who is the Secretary of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, noted that ASCON was
charging between N2,000 and N3,000 to conduct the same examination when
he was a commissioner in the same civil service between 2005 and 2007.
The PDP scribe admitted that the government was allowed to add its
administrative and logistics to the charges of ASCON, “but definitely
not this exploitative, oppressive and cut-throat charges as being
levied.”
In its reaction, Labour Party (LP) in the state described the development as “sin against humanity and God.”
Secretary of the party in the state, Olaposi Sunday, in an interview
said “the electorate are wiser and would react appropriately when the
time comes.”
However, labour union in Ogun State has kept sealed lips on the matter.
Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state, Akeem
Ambali, neither picked his calls nor responded to the SMS sent to his
line.
But the NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the national level have both condemned the action of the Ogun State Government.
They noted the dangers of government trying to generate revenue by
selling employment forms to unemployed applicants in the state.
General Secretary of the NLC , Chris Uyot, criticised the action,
insisting that the government should focus on the enthronement of
transparency and time-honoured values of service to the people of the
state, rather than having an overriding interest on how much money to be
saved from selling examination forms to the unemployed.
In the same
vein, Secretary General of the TUC, Musa Lawal, noted that “the sale of
forms to unemployed youths seeking employment into public service in
Ogun State shows that the political leaders in the state are not in
fellowship with unemployed youths as well as their parents that are the
taxpayers.”
“We are worried that the state government is demanding
as high as N12,000 to obtain employment form to jobless candidates, who
are indigenes of the state.
“It is an unfair social contract to be
perpetrated by the same government that depends on the taxpayers’ money
in running the affairs of the state.”
But while defending the
action, organisers of the examinations, ASCON and the state government,
said they were not forcing it on anyone.
The exam, according to Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, S. Aderonke Folarin, is in four stages.
“The examination which is meant for university graduates aspiring to
join the professional officer cadre of the civil service is done to set
the appropriate standard for new entrants; as a matter of fact, no
applicant is forced by the state government to buy the form,” Folarin
stated.
Source: Daily Independent
