Reps Halt NRS Recruitment Over Chairman’s Repeated Absence

The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character has ordered the immediate suspension of recruitment by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) following the failure of its Executive Chairman, Dr Zacch Adedeji, to honour repeated invitations from the National Assembly.

NOP.NG reports that the committee, chaired by former Deputy Speaker of the House, Ahmed Idris Wase, accused Adedeji of persistently disregarding its summons and warned that it could invoke its constitutional powers to compel compliance.

The directive was issued during the committee’s meeting at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, on Wednesday.

The lawmakers said Adedeji had failed to appear before the committee despite being invited to provide information relating to the NRS workforce and ongoing recruitment exercises.

In a July 15, 2026 letter titled, “Request for Nominal Roll/Invitation to Meeting,” the committee requested a comprehensive and updated nominal roll of the revenue service and directed its chairman to appear before it.

Adedeji, however, did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. The committee consequently threatened to invoke Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution if the NRS leadership continued to ignore its directives.

Section 88 empowers the National Assembly to investigate government institutions in relation to corruption, inefficiency and waste, while Section 89 provides powers to summon witnesses, compel testimony and issue warrants in the course of legislative investigations.

The committee said Wednesday’s invitation was not its first attempt to engage the NRS chairman.

It listed several previous correspondences sent to his office between October 2023 and April 2026, which it said were acknowledged but had not received the required responses.

The disagreement between the lawmakers and the revenue service also centres on recruitment waivers allegedly granted to the NRS by the Federal Character Commission (FCC).

According to the committee, the FCC had previously been instructed not to approve recruitment waivers for the revenue agency pending the resolution of issues being examined by lawmakers.

The committee criticised the subsequent granting of waivers to the NRS, describing the development as “a direct affront to the constitutional oversight responsibilities of the House of Representatives and a disturbing disregard for the authority vested in the National Assembly by the Nigerian people.”

The FCC Chairman, Hulayat Motunrayo Omidiran, was also absent from Wednesday’s proceedings.

Omidiran, in a communication to the committee, attributed her absence to official travel and an illness that followed.

The lawmakers, however, expressed dissatisfaction, saying she had failed to honour several previous invitations and official communications.

They described the repeated absences as “unacceptable and inconsistent with the standards of accountability expected of public office holders.”

Following the development, the committee directed the FCC to suspend all recruitment activities involving the NRS until the relevant officials appear before lawmakers and address the issues raised.

Speaking at the meeting, Wase warned heads of government agencies against treating parliamentary invitations as optional.

He said the House would resist attempts by public institutions to selectively comply with constitutional directives.

“The National Assembly is the voice of the Nigerian people. Its constitutional oversight powers are not symbolic. They are binding instruments of accountability. No agency, commission, or public official is above the Constitution or beyond the reach of parliamentary oversight,” Wase said.

The committee warned that persistent refusal by public officials to appear before the National Assembly could weaken the country’s system of checks and balances and undermine public confidence in democratic institutions.

It vowed to deploy available constitutional and legislative measures to enforce compliance with its directives.

The development comes amid separate controversy over appointments into senior positions at the revenue service.

Sources within the National Assembly, who spoke with Daily Trust, linked the committee’s scrutiny to concerns over compliance with federal character requirements in previous appointments and recruitment exercises.

A January 30, 2026 report by Daily Trust alleged that five of the six Executive Director appointments at the NRS breached provisions of Part IV, Section 17(1) of the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act.

The provision requires each Executive Director to represent a geopolitical zone and bars the Executive Chairman and an Executive Director from coming from the same state.

The legality of some of the appointments has subsequently become the subject of litigation.

The Incorporated Trustees of Patriotic Youth Organisations of Nigeria filed a suit before an Abuja High Court challenging the appointments.

The organisation is seeking an order restraining the affected officials from functioning or presenting themselves as Executive Directors pending the determination of the substantive suit.

President Bola Tinubu, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Nigeria Revenue Service were listed as defendants in the action.