We’ll abolish waivers in MDAs’ recruitment, House vows

The House of Representatives has vowed to abolish the use of waivers in recruitment exercises in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) of government.   

Chairman, Ad hoc Committee on Job Racketeering and Mismanagement of IPPIS, Yusuf Gagdi, stated this, yesterday, when the Registrar of National Graduate Medical College (NPGMC), Prof. Fatiu Arogundade, appeared before it in Abuja.   Describing waiver as an abuse of recruitment processes where nepotism and favouritism take centre stage, Gagdi described waiver in recruitment exercises by any MDA as against the country’s good.   

He said any recruitment that would not follow due process would no longer be tolerated.   According to him, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), directors and others have abused the use of waiver by employing cronies, families and those in their good books.  Gagdi said recruitment in MDAs should, henceforth, be advertised, adding that any recruitment without advertising is unjustifiable.  He called on MDAs to respect federal character in carrying out recruitment exercises to enable participation across board and to encourage equity.  

“Your action is unjustifiable; you have not respected the federal character. Your nominal roll keeps increasing while staff keep retiring. On your recruitment list, you have Borno, Yobe and Plateau that are not represented in your organisation. In your recruitment in 2021, you did not know that Sokoto, Borno, Kano, Jigawa and Bauchi among others have zero,” he told NPGMC.   

The NPGMC registrar promised that all anomalies in the previous recruitment as noted by the lawmakers would be corrected.  He stated: “It is not that the college has not involved the people of the North East. We apologise and we will correct the anomaly in subsequent recruitments.”   An angry member of the committee, Jaha Babao (APC-Borno), said with the lopsidedness and exclusion of Borno and North East in the college recruitments, the Registrar was fuelling Boko Haram.