Lawmakers
failed to ask Minister Abba Moro why he signed a rogue deal that
allowed a consultant keep all the funds raised from applicants....
A shocking
agreement allowing a recruiter handpicked by Nigeria’s interior
minister, Abba Moro, to exploit Nigerians seeking Immigration Service
jobs, and not deploy the nearly N1 billion raised for the applicants’
screening, surprisingly missed out from a line of questioning from
lawmakers probing the deaths of 19 of the job seekers last week.
For more than
six hours that the Senate committee on interior, headed by Abubakar
Bagudu, grilled Mr. Moro, immigration officials, the board supervising
Immigration, and a representative of Drexel Technology Nigeria Limited,
the firm that provided online services for the exams, lawmakers refused
to asked Mr. Moro about the terms of the agreement.
The recruitment
into the Immigration Service on March 15 ended in 19 fatalities
including pregnant women. Outraged Nigerians have called for the removal
of the minister, and prosecution of those responsible for the deaths.
At the Senate
hearing, those questioned by the lawmakers, apart from Mr. Moro himself,
accused the minister of hijacking the exercise, unilaterally selecting
Drexel Ltd. as the recruiter, and failing to make adequate plans for a
screening that involved more than 710,000 applicants.
Lawmakers heard
how despite receiving N1, 000 from each applicant-totalling at least
N710 million- the interior ministry and the Civil Defence Corps, Fire,
Immigration and Prisons Services Board, had no funds to conduct
screening for the candidates.
Sylvanus
Tapgun, the secretary of the board painted a frustrating picture of how
the lack of funds may have accounted for the decision to hold the tests
the same day, an arrangement many have pointed at as the major factor
for the stampedes that led to the deaths.
Central to the
irony of how the recruiters raised so much but had no funds for the test
is a puzzling agreement stating that despite collecting the huge funds
from the applicants, Drexel Limited will not pay for the examinations.
The ministry, which had no budgetary provision, will be responsible, the
pact said.
“The ministry
shall be responsible for the actual conduct of the examination,
interview and selection and subsequently furnish Drexel” with the
outcome,” says Section 2.17 of the agreement between Drexel Ltd and the
ministry of interior. In effect, according to the provision, Drexel
Limited’s responsibility ended with the online registration service.
With calls for
punishment for those responsible for the killer recruitment, the
government’s response may ultimately be shaped by the outcomes of
separate investigations launched by the Senate and the House of
Representatives.
On Tuesday, the
House of Representatives said its committee on public account was also
informed by the board secretary, Mr. Tapgun, that Mr. Moro acted alone
on the recruitment planning, and that more than N1 billion may have been
raised in the exercise.
But for hours
that the minister spent taking questions from senators last Thursday, no
lawmaker pressed him about the authors of the rogue agreement, its
motive, or whether government lawyers took part in its drafting.
The closest the lawmakers came to asking that question was when they raised concerns about the lack of funds for the exams.
Mr. Moro
answered that his ministry had hoped to use funds raised from the
applicants, but that Drexel Limited only drew its attention to the
contentious Section 2.17 days before the test- an acknowledgement of the
shoddy planning that so characterised the process that the ministry, a
party to the agreement, knew nothing of its terms, and merely approved a
document likely scripted by Drexel.
“Drexel’s
issues came days before the exams. So we had to rally for funds to get
the exams taken,” Mr. Moro told the senate committee.
The board
secretary, Mr. Tapgun, said at that point it was clear there would be
consequences if Nigerians realized the screening could not hold because
of funding, after paying so much.
“We said there
is no way we will escape with our skin if Nigerians paid N1, 000 and we
said we don’t have the money,” he told the lawmakers, justifying why the
examinations had to proceed March 15 even with funding problems.
In evidence
before the senate committee, the firm’s Company Secretary/Legal Adviser,
Theodore Maiyaki, portrayed the company as a shrewd business operator
smart enough to cash in on the ineptitude of a government agency.
Lawmakers
probing Mr. Tapgun asked whether that did not indicate the government
had lost control of a firm it claimed to have hired. Stuttering
repeatedly and shifting his gaze, the board secretary gave no solid
response. He merely said he arrived at his post to meet a standard and
wished to retain that standard.
But when the
minister, Mr. Moro, whom other officials accused of taking all decisions
alone, took the podium, those or similar questions were not asked.
Lawmakers
instead asked the minister to merely confirm whether it was true he
acted alone and did not consult with the board supervising the
Immigration Service. There was no query regarding how such an alarming
agreement was arrived at.
Defending his
decisions, Mr. Moro said the lawmakers and Nigerians should, before
arriving at any judgement, be cognizant of his intention for the
exercise which he said was to cleanse a system ridden with corruption,
job racketeering and nepotism in the past.
He said his
board and the ministry decided to meet with Drexel after the test to
reconcile the financial issues arising from the agreement, and at one
point said he should seize the opportunity of the hearing to correct
Nigerians on the real name of the company.
It does not
read Drexel Limited as many Nigerians erroneously reported, but Drexel
Technology Nigeria Limited, the minister said.-Premiumtimes
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