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The State Security Service (SSS) is currently battling a recruitment scandal with most of the new recruits coming from the north while a few from the rest of the country.
According to investigations carried out by Premium Times, the agency commissioned 479 cadet officers after their passing-out ceremony which took place in Lagos and was attended by the director-general of the SSS, Lawal Daura, and the Chief of Air Staff, Abubakar Sadique.
A check on the new recruits showed a wide disparity between those from the north and those from other parts of the country.
The number of slots allocated to northern states is higher compared to their southern counterpart which indicated that the federal character rule might have been flouted.
According to the official selection process, at least, five persons were expected to be selected from each state of the federation and the federal capital territory while and in compliance with federal character, an examinations were conducted in capitals of states of origins of candidates.
Although at least five candidates were selected from each state, checks revealed that it was not evenly distributed. Nigeria’s oil producing state, Akwa Ibom had only five cadets selected while Katsina which is the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari and Daura, the DS of SSS had 51.
While the criterion for selection is not known, the huge disparity raised concern about the opportunities given to northern states.
Another vivid example of the disparity in selection is that of Lagos and Kano, the two most populous states. While Kano boasts of 25 cadets, Lagos has just seven.
The break down by geopolitical zones showed 165 cadets came from north west, 100 from north east, 66 from north central, 42 from south south, 44 from south east and 57 from south west.
This break-down shows that 331 of the newly commissioned officers are from the 19 northern states and the FCT while less than half are from the rest of the country.
Significantly, Section 14, subsection 3 of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria states that: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies”.