By Peter Duru, Makurdi

The Middle Belt Forum, MBF, has blamed the Nigerian system for creating the leeway for unscrupulous individuals to trade off job slots and engage in employment racketeering to the detriment of others.

The National President of MBF, Dr Bitrus Pogu, reacting to the recent allegation of racketeering in the Nigeria Army recruitment where non-indigenes were said to be taking up slots of other indigenes, insisted that the unhealthy development was a self-inflicted systemic problem.

According to him, “This problem was brought about by what we call ‘quota system.’ It is a problem that we created for ourselves.

“It is a Nigerian problem. While we say okay, let us look for competence. In some areas, the interest quota system has been strictly introduced. As a result of that, somebody is qualified, but because of the quota system, they will not allow the person to gain employment, and there are still spaces left out there.

“So naturally, people who cannot fill their quota because they do not have qualified people sell or trade their slot to other Nigerians who, even after filling their quota, still have so many qualified people who could be employed.

“It is no doubt a systematic problem because we have lots of problems in the country that we have not been able to address.

“Rather than saying, gentlemen, this is a professional job; we do not have a place for mediocrity; irrespective of what quota means, let’s have competent hands to handle it; in other areas, we can do the quota thing. Nigerians refused, and in the end, whoever has the money pays for it.

“So it is an unfortunate development; we have to rejig our system, and we have to look again at what is wrong and address these wrongs as early as possible because the whole country pays for it.

“If somebody is employed just because he has to fill a quota and he is not competent, then we have a problem on our hands. So that is the issue, and we have to pray that we have a bold president in place who will say, gentlemen, some jobs require expertise that requires competence. For such jobs, we cannot sacrifice competence on a platter of quota systems.

“That might address the problem, and we may still get qualified people into positions without others being tempted to say, Yes, the people are not there, why don’t we sell it or sell the position?

So if you look at it who do you blame? Is it the people who are selling or the system, which is full of imbalances and creates opportunities for people to sell the quota of others? Now it is up to Nigerians to answer the question.”

Vanguard News