Just like the proverbial cat of many lives, corruption in Nigeria seems to possess several lives as it will not just die despite the current administration’s claim that it has reduced the despicable act to the barest minimum. It was reliably gathered that the Civil Servants saddle with the responsibility of employing and confirming workers has turned their position to money making venture, to the chagrin of many Nigerians that truly deserve the job.
Sources revealed to www.societygazetteng.com that employment into the Federal Civil Service Commission in Nigeria is no longer based best suited in terms of qualification, but on who you know and how much you can cough out, insiders squeak that you must know somebody well placed or ready to pay between N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) to N800,000 (Eight Hundred Thousand Naira) depending on who your link to the recruitment office is to get employment into the federal civil service in Nigeria.
This sad occurrence is not restricted to a particular ministry as it cut across ministries and parastatals of the Federal Government, since all employments are done in the Abuja head office of various ministries, the act usually take place under the nose of different organisations saddled with the responsibilities of stamping out corrupt practices in the country.
Our sources also revealed that for years now the civil service commission compulsory confirmation examinations, which is supposed to be the last step of completely absolving the new recruits into the civil service has also been bedeviled with allegations of large scale corrupt practices which will see the new recruits being asked to pay a certain compulsory amount of money which is meant to be use in settling those who will be marking their exams, has unconfirmed story claimed those who decided not to pay the previous times end-up failing the confirmation exams.
This has allegedly been the way of doing things in all ministries and parastatals, with none of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of tackling such looking the other way.
It would be recalled that earlier in the year, the Head of Service, Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, had resigned her position after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had grilled her over an alleged contract scam to the tune of N3billion with about N600million traced to the account of one of her key aides.
It was reported that she came into the picture when the EFCC were investigating a former minister whose ministry she had worked as a Permanent Secretary. This has forced her to call it quit and since her decision to resign no charges has been brought against her. A decision many said is feeding the fuel into the fire of unending corruption consuming the Nigerian Civil Service.