2019 NNPC Recruitment not fair

Roughly two months ago I wrote an article titled ‘on the 2019 NNPC recruitment’. In that article, sent to syndicate publications in both print and social media, I wholeheartedly passed a vote of confidence on the integrity of Mr President to superintend over a recruitment process devoid of the usual ethnic, religious, political and familial […]

Roughly two months ago I wrote an article titled ‘on the 2019 NNPC recruitment’. In that article, sent to syndicate publications in both print and social media, I wholeheartedly passed a vote of confidence on the integrity of Mr President to superintend over a recruitment process devoid of the usual ethnic, religious, political and familial sentiments previous exercises have been known for. I expected him as been high on integrity and anti-corruption to ensure that only qualified candidates with zero political connections would be invited to go through every stage of the recruitment process until the primus inter pares are given the job based strictly on merit and performance. However, the events of May 24 through May 27, 2019, proved me wrong and showed that if anything, Mr President has no powers whatsoever to nip in the bud this high level of corruption that makes nonsense of his ‘covenant with Nigerians’ message which he gave 10 days to the 2015 general elections in which he said that what was required for Nigeria’s advancement was to ‘’galvanise all our citizens to believe once again in their government, in their country and especially to believe in themselves…’’

I dare ask Mr President how he expects ordinary Nigerian youths to believe in Nigeria and in themselves and overcome depression which is preparatory to suicide when he as substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources cannot guarantee us a free, fair and credible recruitment exercise.  A situation when one high-profile family gets as much as ten direct slots which results into internal squabble over sharing as some members of the family already engaged with another less ‘juicy’ agency of government desires to be pencilled in for the NNPC, is far from being corrupt-free and Mr President cannot say that he is unaware of this fact and many others. As you might expect, yours faithfully and a host of other ordinary but qualified Nigerian youths whom I called as soon as aptitude invites were sent out, were not sent invitations even though we possessed master of science degrees, had a decent oil and gas industry experience and were barely 30 years of age. President Muhammadu Buhari must intervene expeditiously!

Comrade Okpara Edozie Samuel, wrote in from Kaduna     [email protected]