Campuslife Educative
IN 2025, the Federal Ministry of Education approved the recruitment of 270 staff to fill critical vacancies at Federal Polytechnic Bida. But findings show the exercise was manipulated and distorted by officials.
When a publication on the job vacancies available at Federal Polytechnic Bida, Niger State was sent to Mariam (Not real name) in October 2025, she quickly sent her application for the role of a technologist under the School of Applied Arts and Sciences, hoping to work in her alumnus.
“I graduated and served here. Since then, I’ve been applying. I think it’s my fourth time applying hoping that we would be considered first as alumni of the school. I applied in 2012; also in 2019. I applied in 2023, and this one they did is the fourth one,” Mariam explained.
The mother of five who graduated with a 2.1 said that on December 14, 2025, she received a text invitation from the Registrar for an interview on December 16 and 17 at the Council Chamber of the institution.
However, Mariam contends that what she attended was not exactly an interview.
“What they actually did was ask us to enter, just ask you your name, your department and that’s all. They then asked you to submit and go. So, when I saw those things happening, I concluded that I might not get the job. In the previous interviews of 2023, we did aptitude tests. Like a CBT test with a computer batch by batch. They will call you. If your name was on the list, you go in and sit for one hour, then write maths, English, and general study,” she added.
The inconsistency
Mariam decried that her name and those of more than 2,000 applicants invited for interviews were not on the final list of successful candidates. She alleged the list had names of people who didn’t step foot on campus during the recruitment process.
Mariam said she currently works in a private primary school where she is paid N25,000 monthly, below the minimum wage of N70,000, and was hoping that the job will change her situation.
A staff of the school, who pleaded to remain anonymous confirmed to The ICIR that slots were sold, noting that though it had been the usual practice at the institution, the recent employment exercise was alarming as the final list of successful candidates bears little resemblance to those who attended the exercise.
The ICIR obtained the list of applicants for interview which has a total of 2,610 names and the final list of 151 successful candidates that was released after the interview and a comparison of both documents reveals verifiable inconsistencies.
An analysis conducted by this reporter shows that none of the names on the publicised list of successful candidates appeared on the interview list, confirming that none of the candidates that were interviewed made it to the successful candidates list published.
Other applicants who attended the interview confirmed Mariam’s claim, as Suleiman (Not real name) said that he applied for the role of an assistant lecturer in the School of Environmental Studies but was only asked to submit his documents.
“They were calling us according to departments and schools, like School of Technology, School of Information and whatever. So, when it reached my own (turn) we were staying outside they didn’t call us at all. When they called the mask on Office management, they did not call our department. It was later in the evening that we went up there when people were getting scanty,” he said.
Anthony (Not real name) said he travelled from Kaduna State a day before the interview to attend the exercise but didn’t make the successful list.
“I spent my savings to come for the interview. I met other people here and we slept under the mango tree that night. I believed it was an opportunity to get a stable job and support my family,” he said.
Nigerians like Maryam are part of largest youth population in the country, which ironically has one of the highest unemployment rates. What she described as jobs being sold is not an isolated grievance. According to the State of the Nigeria Youth report for 2025, nearly 80 million youths, which represents 53 per cent of the youth population aged 15-34 years are unemployed.
Across Nigeria’s public sector, from federal agencies to tertiary institutions, there is increasing evidence that recruitments into federal government jobs, meant to be merit-based and transparent, are routinely commercialised, parcelled out through political favour, or exchanged for cash or influence.
An investigation in 2020 revealed that about 1,000 applicants were reportedly offered jobs at the Federal College of Education, Yola, after paying at least N800,000 and N1,000,000 per slot, yet two years later they had no confirmed employment status.
A report commissioned by the National Bureau of Statistics with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that only about 40 per cent of public sector workers were recruited through proper processes between 2020 and 2023, noting that the rest secured employment through nepotism, bribery, or both.
Data like this confirms and mirrors what many Nigerians term the systemic crisis of recruitment integrity in Nigeria’s public service, as scandals over paid recruitment have surfaced in several federal institutions.
The Senate in March 2025 noted abuses of the Federal Character Principle, a constitutional mandate requiring equitable distribution of public posts and initiated probes into how agencies, corporations and MDAs recruit and promote staff.
The ICIR contacted the Registrar of the institution, Hussaini Enagi, via calls and WhatsApp messages on January 5, for answer on the contradictory list of successful candidates and applicants invited for interview. Enagi did not respond as a of press time.
Similarly, the Director of Press at the Federal Ministry of Education, Boriowo Folasade, was contacted on January 5 via calls, text and WhatsApp for a response. However, as of the time of this publication, none of the messages were responded to.
The ICIR sent a Freedom of Information Request to the office of the registrar on February 4 for clarity on all the allegations but have not received a response as at the time of filing this report.
School assets diversion
Similarly, there is a growing allegation that the Rector of the institution, Baba Aliyu, sold out several properties belonging to the polytechnic under opaque circumstances.
“The last administration claims they got the permission of the federal government to do auctions. But this administration claims they are doing the leftover auctioning of the past administration, so they sold about three items that I am aware of,” a source familiar with the issue who pleaded to remain unnamed said.
Explaining that the auction was not publicised for public participation, the source alleged that the 2023 Toyota land cruiser Prado which was the official car of the Governing Council chairman, Ismail Muazu Hassan, was auctioned and ended up in his possession.
“I am aware of two Hilux, and they auctioned the 2023 Toyota land cruiser Prado to the current council chairman. The car was his official car. They bought the properties using a third-party identity,” the source explained.
The ICIR contacted Hassan on February 5, for response on this but the WhatsApp and direct message were never responded to.
A source alleged that the former administration headed by the former rector, Abdul Abubakar Dzukogi, auctioned at least fifteen properties of the school to himself, the former Deputy Rector, former Registrar and other management staff.
“The former administration auctioned two Costa buses. Two big PTDF buses, three or four hummer buses. Venses, Siana and other cars, including Peugeot 454. And these items were all sold within the management. A 508 Peugeot was auctioned to the former rector. It was one of his official cars. He had two official cars; the 508 and a Jeep, 2019 model. He auctioned Peugeot 508 to himself and left with the Jeep,” the source added.
The ICIR gathered that the governing council of the school gave Dzukogi, a 10-day ultimatum to appear before it in October 2024 to clarify some grey areas on his eight years stewardship in the polytechnic.
The council said that the former rector had been invited by the council for an exit interview, but did not honour the invitation, citing health challenges and short notice. The council said that in a bid to ensure fair hearing, members of the governing council had granted the request for an extension of date to clear contending issues.
Dzukogi was appointed rector of the institution on May 22, 2015, for a term of 4 years but became very controversial when he extended his stay in office.
His appointment expired on May 21, 2019 after the Federal Polytechnics (Amendment) Act, 2019 had been passed into law by the National Assembly. Section 8(6) of the Act stipulates that he is not entitled to serve an additional tenure as the Rector, but he can only get an additional 1 year to make up 5 years single term. But his second tenure lasted until February 15, 2021 when he attained the mandatory retirement age of 65 years.
The ICIR contacted Dzukogi on 29 January through calls which were not responded to or returned. This reporter called again on February 2 and sent WhatsApp messages, but none was responded to as of press time.
Meanwhile the source alleged that a 2009 Toyota Avensis was auctioned to the former Deputy Rector, Sani Yahaya, who is now the Rector of Ede Polytechnic.
When The ICIR contacted Yahaya for response, he said that he had nothing to do with any auction exercise, noting that he was just an academic staff.
“I learned about the auction as an administrator. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t buy property as a government official. Auctions are sold to the outsiders,” he said.
The former deputy Rector directed this reporter to get the information from the Service and Works while insisting that there was a committee in charge.
“If you want a concrete information, they will give you the list of the committee members, they will give you the list of those who bought items and why they bought. I have nothing to do with that exercise. If anybody told you that I bought any item, that person is telling lies,” he added.
Similarly, the former Registrar, Mohammed Baba Ndana was contacted, and he threatened this reporter with the cyber security law when he called at 9.pm on WhatsApp, insisting that The ICIR should seek clarification concerning the auction from the school directly.
This reporter contacted the school director of Service and Works, Ahmed Abdulrahman, who responded with “Good morning please,” on February 4 on WhatsApp, but thereafter ignore all the messages this reporter sent afterwards.
Meanwhile, a source privy to the auction, alleged that the former executive officials did not buy the school properties in their names.
The ICIR sent a Freedom of Information Request to the office of the Rector on February 4 demanding for the records of the auctioned properties during the previous and current administration. However, as of the time this report was filed, the institution was yet to respond.
Section 4 subsection 7 of the Act stipulates that all FoI requests must be responded to within seven working days from when the said request was sent or inform the applicant the basis for withholding information and explain why it applies.
Alleged diversion of N1.1 billion personnel funds
The ICIR also found out that the polytechnic’s management had allegedly planned to divert N1.1 billion in personnel funds including promotion arrears for 2017, 2024, and 2025, omitted salary payments, and outstanding 25 per cent and 35 per cent increment arrears to settle questionable supplier claims linked to a previous administration.
“I heard that the Rector said the intention was to see how they can remove the money from the personal accounts to another account so that they will be able to pay suppliers and contractors that the school is owing. Some staff kickback and said it would be criminal for him to use personal funds for contractors when personnel were suffering and they are also owing them,” another source privy to the issue told The ICIR.
In November 2025, the Federal Government released N2.311 billion through the Office of the Accountant-General to clear salary and promotion arrears for academic and non-academic staff of federal tertiary institutions.
This funding was part of a broader effort to resolve inherited pay backlogs, and the government also stated it will integrate the Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) into staff salaries in 2026 to improve payment timeliness.
One of the staff who spoke to the ICIR in confidence, said that some schools like Obafemi Awolowo University have paid 12 months and 25 and 35 percent increments that were made during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s term, clearing the backlog for their entire staff, but Federal Polytechnic Bida is yet to pay its staff.
“There are rumours that the rector will get 20 per cent if he pays the debts that they are owing the contractors”, the source said, noting that the management had said that the so-called debts is not realistic because they couldn’t justify how it accumulated.
“We don’t know who the contractors are and which work they did other than the claim that they supplied paper stationery and we don’t know how long or how many years they have been supplying but the debt has accumulated to over 1 billion,” the source added.
Another source who pleaded to be anonymous explained that after news report was published in December about the issue, the Rector retraced his steps but refused to pay the staff.
In January 2026, the Federal Government disbursed another N3.7 billion to about 2,000 staff nationwide under the Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Fund (TISSF), aimed at strengthening staff welfare across federal tertiary institutions. But if the personnel funds released in November did not get to the staff, the staff are wondering if this one will get to them either.
Federal tertiary institutions are funded by taxpayer money and are meant to operate under rigorous public service and procurement standards.
Where evidence of opaque recruitment, unexplained personnel fund movements, or informal asset disposal exists, it undermines public trust and student welfare and merits official oversight.
On January 29, February 2 and 5, this reporter called the Rector, Baba Aliyu but did not get a response. The ICIR went further to send him messages on WhatsApp on February 5 for response, but Aliyu has not responded as at the time of filing this report.
