Sources told SaharaReporters that the new Director General, Mr Charles Ebuebu used the recruitment to buy favour from the presidency and the National Assembly to secure his position.
An employment scandal has rocked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as the commission reportedly recruited no fewer than 240 people into the commission without advertising the positions to the Nigerian public.
The recruitment which SaharaReporters gathered that took place between December 2023 and January 2024 neither followed the approval as obtained for the regularisation of contract staff nor advertised.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the new Director General, Mr Charles Ebuebu used the recruitment to buy favour from the presidency and the National Assembly to secure his position.
According to several sources, Mr Ebuebu used the recruitment to embark on an appointment-sharing spree for the benefit of members of the National Assembly, the Presidency, ministers, friends, and cronies in fragrant disobedience to the provisions of the law.
"No fewer than 240 people were recruited through a backdoor recruitment exercise embarked upon by the NBC in January 2024," an inside source told SaharaReporters.
Sources said the recruitment exercise was marred by sharp practices that raised concern about the hope of the common man in Nigeria despite President Bola Tinubu's touted "Renewed hope government" that promised a departure from the past.
"Though, there was an approval for the regularization of the employment of contract staff members," said one of the sources, lamenting that "getting an approval is one thing but doing as approved is another thing".
Sources explained that before Charles Ebuebu, who was recently appointed came on board as the head of NBC, the stage had already been set for the commencement of the recruitment exercise.
However, what was supposed to be a regularisation of the existing contract staff members, as contained in the approval for the exercise, turned out to be grossly abused by the distribution of slots to the political class and cronies by the new DG and a few members of his team.
"Some contract staff members with the commission had spent 10 years and above," one of the sources explained, adding that the commission had invested so much in them through training and retraining, coupled with their good understanding of the job, yet they were not employed.
Sources added that it was because of several contract staff members whom the commission had over the years invested heavily on that the NBC, through the efforts of the past DGs, sought and secured approval to fully incorporate them as full staff members, in the interest of the commission.
"It is, however, sad that the new DG jettisoned the collectively agreed arrangement by the management team of the commission, in line with approval for the exercise, by recruiting fresh people that are not in the system. And neither did the DG advertise the vacancies, as required by the law, even if such opportunities decide to open for the general public," a source said.
Decrying the arbitrariness and impunity with which the NBC DG embarked on the appointment, a top senior staff member told SaharaReporters that as a precursor to realise his agenda, he first embarked on reshuffling by redeploying three senior directors.
They were said to have suggested to him, at the management meeting, the need for the commission to follow through with the letters of approval for the exercise in the interest of the commission.
"Subsequently, he changed the Head of Human Resources, one Mrs Stella, who was to start the process and replaced her with her junior colleague, Mrs Mamman, who was conspiratorially used by the DG to do his bidding.
"At a point, one can't differentiate between our headquarters and the All Progressives Congress (APC) party secretariat, with the influx of political class members who thronged the Commission to get their share of the appointment spree. It is as bad as that," a staff member revealed.
For the few contract staff members who got appointments, one of the sources said they paid through their nose to get the appointments.
The source said, "At a point, a serious altercation ensued between one senior director, who could no longer stand the shoddy manner the exercise was being conducted by Mrs. Mamman, the lackey introduced at the dying minute by the DG for manipulation. The duo would have punched each other, save for the timely intervention of other staff members who were present that day.
"All these were happening under a ‘renewed hope government’ that promised to do it differently from the past. Where is the hope for the common man? Sad!"
However, a source in the Commission also close to the management told SaharaReporters on condition of anonymity that the new DG of the commission was not part of the recruitment scam, adding that he came and met the exercise almost concluded.
According to the senior staff member, the DG was barely three months old, adding that he was appointed in October 2023, and “somebody cannot just come in October and think he will organise employment”.
He said, "The exercise had been ongoing and he came in and met it going on. The employment had already been done. To tell you the truth, he is not even happy with the way the recruitment was done.
"He is not happy with it because a lot of politicians were involved even before he came. Some of those involved are the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and so on. You know, all those people who have something to do with communication even the people in the Federal Character Commission.
"The FCC that gave us the waiver were involved. The people that gave the waiver, the Head of Service, all those guys that usually gave wavier for employment, they were all involved; they sent candidates. Even though we are in the commission; we are not even happy but what can we do?"
Meanwhile, efforts to get the reaction of the DG or the Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Mr Antia Ekanem, failed.