As FCC washes its dirty linings in the public

To wash one’s dirty linings in the public is as good as doing anything that shouldn’t be public knowledge. Linings are the undies and other inner clothes we wear, which should strictly be private to us because of the dirty elements they retain. This popular expression is used to dissuade people from openly discussing or displaying that which should ordinarily remain undisclosed. Unfortunately, officials of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), last week, rebelled against the spirit of this axiom.

Like the popular television drama troupe, Jagua, led by Afolabi Afolayan in the 1980s-1990s showed mainly in some northern states including Niger, Bauchi, Kwara and Sokoto, it was an exciting though embarrassing ‘show’ when on Tuesday July 25, 2023 commissioners of the FCC accused their chairperson, Mrs. Muheeba Dankaka, of lying about having a doctor’s appointment to avoid appearing before a House of Representatives ad-hoc committee, which had invited them to appear before it.

The commissioners told the committee that as at the time they left the Commission’s premises to come to the national assembly, their chairperson was well and hearty in the office. The committee then directed the chairperson and all the commissioners to appear before it on the following day, Wednesday July 26, 2023. The committee is investigating ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs), parastatals, and tertiary institutions on employment racketeering and the mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

When the committee resumed hearing as scheduled, some commissioners accused Mrs Dankaka of running a racketeering ring and disregarding the Act establishing the Commission. For instance, Moses Anaughe, the commissioner representing Delta State, accused the chairperson of using agents to sell employment slots. He alleged that Dankaka used to invite chief executives of MDAs to her office to discuss 10 percent, which she usually collected before signing relevant recruitment documents. Dankaka was accused of selling each slot of the 10 percent at prices that range between N750,000 and N7 million. Anaugbe added that he had details of the bank accounts into which Dankaka’s agents deposit proceeds made from the job-sales in US dollars. Anaughe also said he had two employment letters with an annual salary of N6.1 million and N8.2 million respectively, as exhibits to show how Dankaka fixed her children in ‘juicy’ agencies.

To further wash their dirtier linings before the committee, Abdulrazak Adeoye, the commissioner representing Osun State, accused Mrs Dankaka of removing staff names from the FCC payroll and unilaterally replacing them with others. Adeoye explained that they (commissioners) wrote a petition to the DSS requesting for a covert investigation into the mess at the FCC but noted that the latter has been dragging its feet over the matter. Similarly, Mamman Alakaye, the commissioner from Nasarawa State, also tendered some documents to the committee, showing how Dankaka transferred her son from the National Communications Commission (NCC) to the Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (DPRC).

Reacting, Dankaka said the FCC was “a marketplace for selling jobs” before she assumed duties there in 2021; urging Nigerians to find out from Abuja residents if what she said was not true. She added that the case between her and her colleagues was that of corruption fighting back. “I swear with Almighty God, apart from the oath, I can take an oath with the Quran. Before I came here, I had made my name. I had made my money”, Dankaka said.

But since the argument was not about when and where she made her name and wealth, I thought Dankaka would rather have said “I can take an oath with the Qur’an that I did not sell jobs or did not transfer my son from the NCC to DPRC or replaced existing names in the FCC’s payroll with others.” Realising some gaps and inadequacies in the documents submitted by Dankaka, the chairman of the Reps committee, Yusuf Adamu Gagdi, said they have received petitions against 39 MDAs that engaged in job-racketeering.

The allegations made against Dankaka over the fixing of her children in ‘juicy’ MDAs are simply a re-statement of the obvious. As certain as the rising of the sun in the morning, Nigerians know that vacant positions at the CBN, NNPCL, FIRS, NCC, NDIC, DPRC, NHIS, PHCDA, and other select MDAs have since become the exclusive preserve of the children and relations of governors, senators, lawmakers, and authorities that decide the fate of employment in the budget office and the FCC. This explains why job slots in these choice agencies are not marketed, and are also never advertised. The vacancies that are sold are those which they mischievously believe should go to ordinary Nigerians’ children.

Leaders in positions of authority who, today, abuse public office as if it were personal property have forgotten that there wouldn’t have found any vacant positions to fill if the country’s first republic crop of public officers had taken the selfish and greedy path, which they are treading these days. To dampen the hope of the present generation of Nigerians, the country’s political topography is also, without any doubts, drifting away from democracy to oligarchy. This term, oligarchy, simply means ‘rule by few’. It is “a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people.” Throughout the course of human history, oligarchies have often been seen to be dictatorial; relying on oppression to survive.

Nigeria’s 24-year-old fourth republic illustrates, to a great extent, the establishment and nurturing of an oligarchy; a dangerous conspiracy for the future of our country. The list of candidates who won primary elections to contest for elective positions in 2023 general elections which held on February 25, and March 11, this year showed how a group of few Nigerians wished to convert the country into their personal property. This was the feat, which one family in one of the states in the northwest geo-political zone of the country attempted to achieve. While the father was a senatorial candidate, the son and the daughter respectively contested for governorship and state assembly seats.

The gratuitous monopolisation of the public service by the elites and the malicious domination of the political stage by the ruling class are two exploitative tendencies that portend danger for prosperity if nothing is done to halt them. May Allah touch guide our leaders to approach governance with a fair sense of leadership, amin.