The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vehemently rejects the resort to
political godfatherism as well as underhand measures in the allocation
of Federal Government’s 774,000 jobs to cronies of political office
holders instead of an open process that will accommodate every Nigerian.
The party describes the illegal and anti-people method adopted by the
All Progressives Congress (APC) 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 PDP notes 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 rejects a situation where, in each local government area, 800
slots of the 1000 jobs have already been pencilled off to political
cronies while the remaining 200 openings are thrown open for contest to
the public, which also include politically affiliated persons.
The party stresses 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such, should be immediately rescinded in the national interest.
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.
The PDP called for an apolitical process by the National Directorate of
Employment (NDE) that involves the active participation of
non-politically aligned community leaders in states.
The PDP urges all well-meaning Nigerians to unite in rejection of
political allocation of jobs while calling on all citizens that fall
within the eligibility bracket to go to their local government
headquarters and demand for their rights of opportunity to participate
in the program.
As a party, the PDP stands with the deprived Nigerians in demanding for
equity and equitable access to opportunities for all Nigerians, without
regard to any form of connections whatsoever.
