Nigeria’s internal secret service, the State Security Service (SSS), is enmeshed in a recruitment scandal following the exposure of a shocking lopsidedness in the composition of the new officers recently absorbed into the agency.
The agency commissioned 479 cadet officers after their passing-out parade in Lagos on March 5, at a ceremony attended by the Director-General of the Agency, Lawal Daura, and the Chief of Air Staff, Abubakar Sadique, air marshall.
The parade followed a nine-month training programme under the agency’s Basic Course 29/2016/17, which encompassed academic activities, insurgency/counter insurgency, intelligence operations and gathering, firearms drills and physical training exercises.
But the listing of the newly commissioned cadet officers seen by PREMIUM TIMES reveal wide disparity in the numbers of slots allocated to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, indicating that the federal character principle may have been ignored in the recruitment of the officers.
Officially, recruitment for the Course was based on a minimum of five slots per state. Ostensibly to ensure compliance with the federal character principle in the exercise, applicants were last year made to sit for recruitment examinations in the capitals of their states of origin. The five slots per state were said to have been picked through the examinations.
However, it has emerged that the authorities paid scant regards to the federal character principle in the final selection of the cadets.
Although the authorities ensured that at least five cadets were recruited from each state and the FCT, they grotesquely tipped the scale in favour of some states in the balance of recruits that emerged from other extraneous considerations.
For instance, while only the minimum of five cadets stipulated per state finally entered the Service from Akwa Ibom, Nigeria’s largest oil producing state, a whopping 51 found their way in from Katsina State, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director-General of the SSS, Mr. Daura.
It is not clear what criteria was used in the composition of the final list of the new officers.
The anomaly in the exercise is further evident in the disparity between intakes from the two most populous states in Nigeria, Kano and Lagos, which have 25 and seven, respectively, indicating that the size of the pool of applicants from each state was not a factor in the recruitment.
A breakdown of the newly commissioned cadet officers on geo-political basis revealed that 165 are from the North-west, about four times as many as those who were picked from the South-south (42).
The figures for the other other zones are North-east 100, North-central 66, South-west 57 and South-east 44.
This means that while 331 of the newly commissioned officers are from the 19 northern states and the FCT, less than half of the total intakes were from states in the southern part of Nigeria. See table and charts below for slots allocated to each state.
Attempts to speak with the SSS on the criteria used for the allocation of slots to states were not rewarded as at the time of this publication.
The agency has had no spokesperson since the removal of its last one, Marilyn Ogar, in 2015. The Director-General of the agency, Mr. Daura, did not pick calls or respond to a text message sent to his known telephone numbers.
Also, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Shettima Bukar-Abba, did not pick his calls or respond to a message seeking clarifications on the role played by the commission in the recruitment exercise.
The Commission has the responsibility of ensuring compliance with the federal character principle in recruitment into the federal civil service and agencies.
In demonstration of the importance attached to the principle, it has been enshrined in every constitution of Nigeria since the country’s independence.
Section 14, subsection 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria states that: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies”.
__Premuimtimesng
But the listing of the newly commissioned cadet officers seen by PREMIUM TIMES reveal wide disparity in the numbers of slots allocated to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, indicating that the federal character principle may have been ignored in the recruitment of the officers.
Officially, recruitment for the Course was based on a minimum of five slots per state. Ostensibly to ensure compliance with the federal character principle in the exercise, applicants were last year made to sit for recruitment examinations in the capitals of their states of origin. The five slots per state were said to have been picked through the examinations.
However, it has emerged that the authorities paid scant regards to the federal character principle in the final selection of the cadets.
Although the authorities ensured that at least five cadets were recruited from each state and the FCT, they grotesquely tipped the scale in favour of some states in the balance of recruits that emerged from other extraneous considerations.
For instance, while only the minimum of five cadets stipulated per state finally entered the Service from Akwa Ibom, Nigeria’s largest oil producing state, a whopping 51 found their way in from Katsina State, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Director-General of the SSS, Mr. Daura.
It is not clear what criteria was used in the composition of the final list of the new officers.
The anomaly in the exercise is further evident in the disparity between intakes from the two most populous states in Nigeria, Kano and Lagos, which have 25 and seven, respectively, indicating that the size of the pool of applicants from each state was not a factor in the recruitment.
A breakdown of the newly commissioned cadet officers on geo-political basis revealed that 165 are from the North-west, about four times as many as those who were picked from the South-south (42).
The figures for the other other zones are North-east 100, North-central 66, South-west 57 and South-east 44.
This means that while 331 of the newly commissioned officers are from the 19 northern states and the FCT, less than half of the total intakes were from states in the southern part of Nigeria. See table and charts below for slots allocated to each state.
Attempts to speak with the SSS on the criteria used for the allocation of slots to states were not rewarded as at the time of this publication.
The agency has had no spokesperson since the removal of its last one, Marilyn Ogar, in 2015. The Director-General of the agency, Mr. Daura, did not pick calls or respond to a text message sent to his known telephone numbers.
Also, the Acting Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, Shettima Bukar-Abba, did not pick his calls or respond to a message seeking clarifications on the role played by the commission in the recruitment exercise.
The Commission has the responsibility of ensuring compliance with the federal character principle in recruitment into the federal civil service and agencies.
In demonstration of the importance attached to the principle, it has been enshrined in every constitution of Nigeria since the country’s independence.
Section 14, subsection 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria states that: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies”.
__Premuimtimesng
This is very shameful. The north believe that Nigeria belongs to them. I hope Yorubas will hv the courage like other Nigerians to speak up against this blatant abuse of the federal character principle.
ReplyDeleteSmh.
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Until we all see ourselves as 1 entity, the country is fucked.
ReplyDeleteNa hausa people full there na. People wey no go school self. Na pass them carry comot for university
Katsina 51,Lagos 7,Akwa Ibom 5 .....Lmao I laugh in Swahili... And they say we are one Nigeria
ReplyDeleteLmao. And they say we shouldn't campaign for a Biafra Nation. Well they should just keep fuelling up our reasons and motifs
DeleteI tire....lol
ReplyDeleteWaiting for ihn like kilode....
Are you guys surprised? Hehehehehe... Una never see.
ReplyDeleteHope the Yaribas can see how the Hausa's they teamed up with have dribbled them?
ReplyDeleteCowards and hypocrites; how does the wound taste as you lick them?
This is not new na. Whoever is in power in whatever position does this. I remember one time, majority of the staff of one institution was from the tribe of the overseer.
ReplyDeleteWe pray naija changes one day.
Jonathan included all tribes, even in sensitive positions. And no, I don't stand to be corrected by anyone that wants to masturbate under my comment.
DeleteAnd later dey will blame igbos for wanting out..yeye dey smell
ReplyDeleteTRIBALISM will be our doom in this country!!!! Just look at that list... they're not even trying to hide it at all.
ReplyDeleteLater somebody will come and tell me Buhari is a Saint? God will punish all the evil, corrupt foola destroying our beloved country
Nigeria my country which way,hmmm
ReplyDeleteI knew it would get to this. After about 4000 candidates writing exam on Saturday and the result came out Sunday morning. How did they mark the answer sheets which was not even objective questions? Corruption in every sector in Nigeria. Just have a northern elite as godfather and you will have a good job in any federal parastatal in Nigeria.
ReplyDeletePlease I would to apply this year... Help. I need connect.
ReplyDeleteMail in my bio.
Nigeria has entered am with this one chance scam change government of Buhari.......They should change the name to Kastina and other states security service.........rubbish
ReplyDeletewhen it comes to getting into our higher institution, they will use quota system, but it comes to giving employment the north takes it all, a cursory look into the graph will see only kano state with ten percent of the entire slots, which way Nigeria, la fresh, is talking about everyone doing it, who amongst jonathan or obj did a brazen thing like this, what is the criterion for these selection? are they better educated or what? this same thing happened in the CBN and FIRS employment recruitment. how can a person so abuse state power like its a private thing. This is the worst kind of corruption that buhari claims to be fighting. what better explanation do you give to agitators like niger deltans and ipob. jonathan and obj were never this heartless and brazen. Nigeria belongs to all of us. And what are our corrupt nass members doing about this shameful recruitment? this is the time to act now, and leave magu alone. Honestly the union is not working, we should restructure or better still total separation is the only way out. NONSENSE
ReplyDeleteKatsina state and not kano*
DeleteI'm not saying what he did is right. It has been like this for as long as I know.
Deletewhen it comes to getting into our higher institution, they will use quota system, but it comes to giving employment the north takes it all, all cursory look into the graph will see only kano state with ten percent of the entire slots, which way Nigeria, la fresh, is talking about everyone doing it, who amongst jonathan or obj did a brazen thing like this, what is the criterion for these selection? are they better educated or what? this same thing happened in the CBN and FIRS employment recruitment. how can a person so abuse a state power like its a private thing. This is the worst kind of corruption that buhari claims to be fighting. what better explanation do you give to agitators like niger deltans and ipob. jonathan and obj were never this heartless and brazen. Nigeria belongs to all of us. and what are our corrupt nass members doing about this shameful recruitment? this is the time to act now, and leave magu alone. Honestly the union is not working, we should restructure or better still total separation is the only way out.
ReplyDeleteI dey laugh
ReplyDeleteYou see why the country need restructuring in order for us to practice true federalism. There is still for journalism in Nigeria. Thank you.
ReplyDelete