Over 18 Months After Recruitment, Nigerian Justice Ministry Yet To Deploy Staff, Leaves Recruits Stranded
More than 18 months after their recruitment, dozens of newly employed staff of the Federal Ministry of Justice have yet to assume duty despite being issued appointment letters over a year ago, sparking growing frustration and uncertainty among the affected officers.
No fewer than 35 employees successfully scaled through the 2024 recruitment exercise and were duly issued appointment letters, but they have since been left in limbo, with no clear communication from the ministry on when they would officially resume.
SaharaReporters gathered that the affected employees applied for positions as State Counsel in April 2023, were invited for interviews in October 2023, and later received messages from the Federal Civil Service Commission notifying them of their appointment letters. They were subsequently directed to complete documentation at the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation in April 2024.
Sources disclosed that while some of their colleagues recruited during the same period have since been posted to other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government, those meant for the Ministry of Justice remain idle. State Counsel are lawyers who represent the Nigerian government in court cases and are essential to the ministry’s operations.
Some of the recruits, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimization, lamented the financial and emotional strain caused by the prolonged delay.
Ironically, the Ministry of Justice has frequently decried the shortage of State Counsel, a situation that often leads to unnecessary adjournments and prolonged litigation in Nigerian courts.
According to the recruits, many of them resigned from their previous jobs after receiving appointment letters, expecting to resume duty immediately, only to find themselves unemployed for more than a year.
“It is very disheartening. We completed all the recruitment processes, received our letters, and were instructed to wait for deployment. Since then, there has been silence from the ministry. We don’t know if we still have jobs or not,” one of the affected recruits said.
“We applied for the job sometime around April 2023, and we were subsequently invited for an interview sometime around October 2023. We received messages sometime around February 2024 to go to the Federal Civil Service Commission for our appointment letters.”
Another affected recruit said, “Sometime around April 2024, we were invited to go for our documentation at the office of the head of service of the federation, which we did.
“While others recruited during the same recruitment exercise and posted to other Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the Federal Government have since resumed work, those posted to the Ministry of Justice are yet to be documented or assume duty for over a year, and no reason has been given for such delay by the Ministry.”
“And a few weeks after we submitted our letters to the ministry, we began to hear rumours that some senior officers at the ministry had vowed to frustrate the recruitment done by the Civil Service Commission,” the victim told SaharaReporters.
The delay has raised concerns about transparency in government recruitment processes and the fate of qualified candidates who may be unfairly sidelined despite meeting all requirements.
The recruits appealed to the Federal Government and the Minister of Justice to urgently intervene to ensure that their efforts and aspirations to serve the country are not wasted.
Efforts by SaharaReporters to obtain an official response from the Ministry of Justice proved abortive, as calls and messages sent to the media aide to the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Kamorudeen Ogundele, were not returned at the time of filing this report.
