Abuja – Prof. Shuaibu Abdulraheem, the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), says the commission’s guidelines promotes gender equality and opportunities for physically challenged persons

The Chairman told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja that the guidelines of FCC do not discriminate amongst persons or gender.

He said that recruitment in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must reflect quality, merit, gender equality, proper representation of zones and must cater for the physically challenged persons in the society.

“The FCC guidelines on recruitment insist that anyone that wants to recruit must advertise in at least two national dailies.

“At times MDAs come to seek waivers on advertisement for recruitment due to financial implications, especially when the people needed are not many.

“There is an official embargo on recruitment and any MDA that want to recruit must seek waiver from the Head of Service to recruit but must comply with other principles of the commission,’’ he said.

Abdulraheem said that the commission only gave waivers on two contexts – advertisements and embargo on recruitment.

“The issue of under and over representation in the public civil service is not a static thing; some people retire while some voluntarily exit themselves from the service.

“ Our job as a commission is to ensure that we bridge these gaps in terms of representation,’’ he said.