THE Peoples Democratic Party and the African Democratic Congress have called for transparency in the allocation of the Federal Government’s 774,000 jobs.
The parties, in separate statements, accused the APC of allocating the jobs to cronies of political office holders, saying the ruling party had resorted to godfatherism in a matter that should benefit unemployed Nigerians irrespective of affiliations.
The PDP, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said, “The illegal and anti-people method adopted by the All Progressives Congress and its administration as an unpardonable injustice to the generality of unemployed Nigerians who do not have political godfathers and are not affiliated to any political party.
“While our party is not against the creation of job opportunities to 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 party noted that since the funding for the jobs was 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.
It rejected a situation where, in each local government area, 800 slots of the 1000 jobs had already been pencilled off to political cronies while the remaining 200 openings were thrown open for contest to the public, which also include politically affiliated persons.
It stressed that such brash violation of the principle of fairness and equal opportunity by the APC and its administration, was a direct invitation to restiveness and acrimony in the country and as such, should be immediately rescinded in the national interest.
It said, “Already, 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, our party charges the Federal Government to rescind the resort to political allocation and only engage Nigerians through an open, transparent and all-inclusive process in the allocation of the 774,000 jobs.”
On its part, the ADC said a situation where the ruling party cared only for members of APC at the expense of the suffering majority was a worrisome one that must be rejected by well-meaning Nigerians.
The party in a statement on Monday, said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had continued to treat common reosurces like party resources, pointing out that loyalists and members of the ruling party also benefitted more from the palliatives that were rolled out during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Our party frowns at this injustice and lack of transparency on the part of the ruling party. The 774,000 jobs must go round in an equitable way. What is happening now is that many unemployed Nigerians have been edged out on account of godfatherism in the allocation of the jobs,” the party said.
” We demand the release of names of beneficiaries and their details at the end of the exercise so that Nigerians can judge how fairly the jobs were distributed,” ADC added.
