PENCOM clarifies stance on employment protest

The National Pension Commission (PENCOM) has clarified its position, and reason behind its failure to admit the 42 recruited staff members scheduled to resume on May 2nd 2017, citing infringement of Federal Character Commission’s laws as the root of the problem.

Speaking on a recent protest at the PENCOM head office in Abuja, the Acting Director General, Aisha Dahir-Umar made it known that the previous administration had failed to fully comply with the rules of the Federal Character Commission during the recruitment process, thereby prompting the Federal Character Commission to put push for a stop in the entire recruitment process.

Dahir-Umar while recalling the entire controversy, explained that for the commission to recruit, it is imperative for compliance certificates also known as “no objections” to be collected from the
Federal Character Commission in a bid to ensure fairness in the employment process. This certificate to be collected twice, first at the point of initial recruitment granting permission to hold tests or interviews and again when letters of employment are to be served, was only collected at the initial stage of the recruitment exercise.

She further explained that the previous administration had violated the Federal Character Commission laws by first of all going against the original compliance certificate which stated that only 16 applicants be recruited by recruiting 42, and secondly by handing out letters of employment without receiving permission in form of the no objection certificate from the Federal Character Commission. This, according to Dahir-Umar led to the Federal Character Commission submitting the case to the National Assembly and further actions were set in motion to halt the entire process.

As to why the breach occurred, Dahir-Umar stated that at the time she headed another department, only resuming as Acting Director General in April 2017. On the role of the board in the case, Dahir-Umar informed pressmen that the board was not involved in the recruitment exercise as this was an entry level recruitment, and the board gets involved in only top level managerial recruitment

Imbalance in the ratio of the Pencom staff to states of origin was also another factor the Acting Director General noted might be a motivation behind the decision to nullify the exercise, made by the Federal Character Commission. She admitted that some states have as much as 30 indigenes in the commission, while some have as low as 5 indigenes, which would have been replicated if the 42 recruits had resumed.

A protest staged by some of the alleged aggrieved recruits on Wednesday 29th August at the Pencom office in Abuja, ended up in police intervention. The protesters who came in on the guise of being part of the 42 recruits denied resumption, were allegedly paid to protest. This was discovered when they began to fight within themselves, after an agreed sum of N2000 to be paid was reduced to N1000 by the organizers of the protest.

Speaking on the protest, Dahir-Umar called the protesters miscreants who had been financially manipulated into protesting as the real
recruits affected had a credible union, of which she was in contact with its president. She also mentioned that while the commission has been mandated to cancel the whole exercise, they were holding out to see if a solution can be reached as the plight of the recruits was being taken into full consideration.

On the way forward, Dahir-Umar has called on the recruits to exercise patience as the commission is still looking for ways to resolve the situation. “They have petitioned the Secretary General of the federation and other agencies on this issue, but they need to exercise more patience. Pencom gave them letters to resume, but at this point, it is beyond us” she said.

Conrad Omodiagbe