Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday said it has rejected the resorting to political godfatherism as well as underhand measures in the allocation of the federal government 774,000 jobs to cronies of political office holders instead of an open process that will accommodate every Nigerian.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described as illegal and anti-people method adopted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its administration, saying it is as an unpardonable injustice to the generality of unemployed Nigerians who do not have political godfathers and are not affiliated to any political party.
The PDP spokesperson, therefore, said: “While our party is not against the creation of job opportunities for Nigerians, we reject this crafty political allocation, which is a direct exclusion of hardworking Nigerians from opportunities that should have been open to them under an open and transparent process.”
The PDP noted that since the funding for the jobs is drawn from the national purse, the process should be completely apolitical in a manner that grants unrestrictive opportunity to all Nigerians irrespective of political affiliation, ethnicity or creed.
The PDP said it rejected a situation where in each local government area, 800 slots of the 1,000 jobs have already been penciled for political cronies while the remaining 200 openings are thrown open for contest to the public, which also include politically affiliated persons.
The party stressed that such ‘brash violation of the principle of fairness and equal opportunity by the APC and its administration’, is a direct invitation to restiveness and acrimony in the country, and as such, should be immediately rescinded in the spirit of national interest and unity.
Already, PDP explained that “there is a growing uneasiness and restiveness among Nigerians, who would definitely be denied opportunity to participate in this national process.
“This is especially given allegations already in the public space that the resort to political allocation of jobs is designed by selfish APC leaders to corner the opportunities for selfish pecuniary reasons.”
Consequently, the PDP said: “Our party charges the federal government to rescind the resort to political allocation, and only engage Nigerians through a transparent and all-inclusive process in the allocation of the 774,000 jobs.”
The party called for an apolitical process by the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) which involves the active participation of non-politically aligned community leaders in states.
The PDP also urged all well-meaning Nigerians to unite in rejecting political allocation of jobs, while calling on all citizens that fall within the eligibility bracket to go to their local government area headquarters and demand their rights of opportunity to participate in the programme.
