What is stopping the replacement of workers in the Federal Government of Nigeria?

Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which affected most industries around the world that provide or secure jobs for people.In this situation, most developing countries face this problem where the majority of the youth in the country face high levels of youth unemployment.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics reveals Nigeria’s unemployment rate as at the second quarter of 2020 was 27.1%, indicating that about 21,764,614 (21.7 million) Nigerians remain unemployed.

Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment rates (28.6%) are a combined 55.7%. This means the total number of Nigerians who are unemployed or underemployed as at 2020 Q2.

The data also reveals the worst-hit are Nigerian youths, with over 13.9 million currently unemployed. In Q3 2018, the last time the report was released, there were about 13.1 million Nigerian youths unemployed. 6.8 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed, with another 7.1 million unemployed.

A member of the Federal Parliament of Nigeria says there are more than 120,000 federal government jobs but President Muhammadu Buhari has refused to fill them.

The Honorable Sani Bala Tsanyawa, who is the chairman of the Public Works Committee of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, confirmed this in an interview with BBC Hausa.

He said President Buhari had informed the legislature to take action in 2019 when he went to the chamber to present the budget.

According to him, “When the budget was presented to the legislature, it stated that it had suspended all employment in the mainstream civil service.”

He said since the president imposed the ban, there has been no more employment in such ministries.

However, he said some government ministries were allowed to hire for compelling reasons.

Areas of interest include security and safety as a result of the cholera outbreak.

He added: “Over the past five years, our research has shown that 130,000 workers have resigned.”

“Some have either died, some have retired, and some have found a different job after leaving the federal government.”

He said that in the five years since the ban was imposed, only 6,700 people have been employed by the federal government.

He said the number of vacancies was still high because there were always workers dying or resigning, but the ban had not yet been lifted.

However, he said there were some agencies that sometimes hired staff, such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Communications Commission (NCC), but not in the public service, which is called in English, “ministries”.

“Our efforts”

Hon. Sani Bala Tsanyawa said that his committee had repeatedly tabled a resolution in the House of Representatives to lift the ban on employment but it had failed.

“I, the head of public administration of the Federal Parliament, along with other members of the House of Representatives, have passed a resolution once or twice calling for the lifting of the ban,” he said.

Bala Tsanyawa said the legislature had tried to get the ban lifted by calling on the Federal Public Service Commission and the chief of staff of the federal government to comment.

According to him, the Federal Employment Service (FPS) has said it is not its fault, as no one has the right to apply for a job in the federal government except the chief of staff of the federal government.

The chief of staff of the federal government says it is not her fault because it is the president who is responsible for the ban, not her.

Also, 21 per cent of the youth who are working are not being paid their salaries, which contributes to the break.

The problem of unemployment is the major causative agent and the process of triggering most of the crime and related rates in the country. Thousands of youth have graduated from various institutions across the country, but only a small number of them are securing jobs.