Just when you think you've seen and heard it all in this jungle of a country, another mind-numbing incident happens and you start to wonder if Nigeria isn't an extension of hell...
I've only ever been in a Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) office for three hours but two things were clear to me from that brief visit. One, every Tom, Dick and Harry, if given the opportunity, wishes to leave Nigeria- but that's topic for another day. Two, the NIS is a very corrupt and disorganized institution. Or how else would you describe a government office in Nigeria where workers resume before 8a.m just to ensure they can get as much passport applicants who will pay them sharp-sharp processing fees to get their passports within the blink of an eye, with such fees usually being double the amount the legit process requires to get the same passport? I doubt if there's any of our Immigration officers that knows or remembers the legit process to apply for and collect these international passports any more, the dubious means has become the normal mode of operation. Of course if you've been to any of the NIS offices, you'll agree with me that the ratio of khaki-wearing officers to passport applicants at peak period is approximately 2:1- yes, I mean that there are more officers than applicants themselves at every point in time in Immigration offices across Nigeria. Really, NIS is a place I'll want to visit ONLY when I absolutely have to.
That the NIS advertised vacancies isn't an issue. Every government institution in Nigeria is required by law to advertise vacant positions to the public; never mind that in most cases,before those advertisements make it to the media, the people who would occupy those vacancies already have their employment letters in their hands. That the NIS held recruitment exercises across the states of the Nigerian federation also isn't an issue. In fact, it's commendable that they did that rather than asking every applicant to cough out transport fares and risk their lives travelling through bad roads just to come to Abuja to write recruitment tests- like some government institutions will do (NTA anyone?). So the NIS did get one or two things right- at least in comparison with some other government institutions. But they got every other thing very wrong.
Why should the NIS make every applicant- most of whom actually have no good paying jobs- to pay 1,000 Naira in order to complete the job application? What's the basis for the payment? Payment for printing the question papers and answer scripts? Payment to officials who organized the test? Or what? Mind you, the NIS, like every other government institution in Nigeria, gets over-bloated budget allocations from the nation's treasury on a quarterly basis, so why extort money from Nigerians again? I learnt the National Assembly asked the NIS to return the money back to every applicant. But we all know that apart from when APC is fighting PDP and vice versa, the National Assembly is a toothless bulldog. So that order, like many others in the past, was flouted by the NIS.
Again, why was there no screening of candidates after the application process? Instead every applicant that applied for the vacant positions was asked to come for an aptitude test in various stadia across the country- that's laziness and ineptitude of the highest order! With the overwhelming percentage of unemployed and underemployed people in the country, plus the security and over-bloated allowances that come with government jobs in Nigeria which are incentives for everybody to want to come and partake in the national cake, there was only one result that was ever going to come out of this- chaos. I've heard some people blame the applicants for their greed to get government jobs which resulted in the overwhelming crowd that turned up for the test. But who wouldn't want a job where he may come to work at any time of the day and still get fully paid, with allowances too? Who wouldn't want a job where he can make thrice more than his basic salary via illegit means? Who wouldn't want a job that provides him full-time income and still allows him to run his private business full-time? And who wouldn't want a job that he gets paid in full for doing nothing apart from gossiping and sleeping on duty? These are features of state and federal government jobs in Nigeria, same with the political offices a lot of mediocre and visionless people hustle for in Nigeria. They are glaring testaments to the fact that Nigeria, as it is now, isn't working; and if the mediocre structure continues to remain in place, Nigeria as an entity will never work, regardless of whoever or whatever party is at the helm of affairs in the country.
Then, whatever happened to online tests? Or having more test centers in each state? Because handling 55,000 candidates in a place is a really herculean task and will take proper and well thought out organization to execute successfully. But asking 70,000 people to come to a 55,000 seat-capacity stadium for an exam is surely a suicide mission. I don't know about you but I was not the least bit surprised to hear about the stampede and resulting casualties from the various test centers; even though most Lagosians weren't expecting the traffic gridlock that occured around the Surulere and Onikan stadia. Why didn't the NIS use part of the extorted money to pay a professional recruitment agency that would have most certainly handled the exercise better?
Really, will the scripts of those who eventually wrote and submitted the test be marked? Is there even a need to mark the scripts where almost everybody likely wrote the same thing? Why invite more than 300,000 people to come and slug it out for vacant positions of just 3,000? Were the real owners of the job (i.e. the ones with the Ogas at the top) among the teeming crowd that thronged our stadia for the recruitment exercise or within the comfort of their homes waiting to be called upon to come and receive their employment letters?
Already I've started seeing disgusting news like PDP mourns Immigration recruitment victims, demands immediate investigation in the media, and I know APC, CAN, OPC and the rest of the busy-body organizations in Nigeria will follow suit too, like they always do after every tragic incident that occurs in the country. I'm sure the National Assembly will start fruitless questionings on the ill-fated exercise. In saner climes, the immediate sack or resignation of the heads of NIS will be the first fallout of this incident, but does our President have the spine to issue this order? I don't think so. Will the victims' families be compensated by the NIS or Nigerian government? I don't think so too. Will we rise to protest this latest injustice done to us? Absolutely not, we've already perfected the art of coping and smiling while suffering.
Meanwhile, may the souls of the job seekers cum martyrs rest in peace. But what's the guarantee that we won't be repeating this prayer next time NIS holds its recruitment exercise again?
That the NIS advertised vacancies isn't an issue. Every government institution in Nigeria is required by law to advertise vacant positions to the public; never mind that in most cases,before those advertisements make it to the media, the people who would occupy those vacancies already have their employment letters in their hands. That the NIS held recruitment exercises across the states of the Nigerian federation also isn't an issue. In fact, it's commendable that they did that rather than asking every applicant to cough out transport fares and risk their lives travelling through bad roads just to come to Abuja to write recruitment tests- like some government institutions will do (NTA anyone?). So the NIS did get one or two things right- at least in comparison with some other government institutions. But they got every other thing very wrong.
Why should the NIS make every applicant- most of whom actually have no good paying jobs- to pay 1,000 Naira in order to complete the job application? What's the basis for the payment? Payment for printing the question papers and answer scripts? Payment to officials who organized the test? Or what? Mind you, the NIS, like every other government institution in Nigeria, gets over-bloated budget allocations from the nation's treasury on a quarterly basis, so why extort money from Nigerians again? I learnt the National Assembly asked the NIS to return the money back to every applicant. But we all know that apart from when APC is fighting PDP and vice versa, the National Assembly is a toothless bulldog. So that order, like many others in the past, was flouted by the NIS.
Again, why was there no screening of candidates after the application process? Instead every applicant that applied for the vacant positions was asked to come for an aptitude test in various stadia across the country- that's laziness and ineptitude of the highest order! With the overwhelming percentage of unemployed and underemployed people in the country, plus the security and over-bloated allowances that come with government jobs in Nigeria which are incentives for everybody to want to come and partake in the national cake, there was only one result that was ever going to come out of this- chaos. I've heard some people blame the applicants for their greed to get government jobs which resulted in the overwhelming crowd that turned up for the test. But who wouldn't want a job where he may come to work at any time of the day and still get fully paid, with allowances too? Who wouldn't want a job where he can make thrice more than his basic salary via illegit means? Who wouldn't want a job that provides him full-time income and still allows him to run his private business full-time? And who wouldn't want a job that he gets paid in full for doing nothing apart from gossiping and sleeping on duty? These are features of state and federal government jobs in Nigeria, same with the political offices a lot of mediocre and visionless people hustle for in Nigeria. They are glaring testaments to the fact that Nigeria, as it is now, isn't working; and if the mediocre structure continues to remain in place, Nigeria as an entity will never work, regardless of whoever or whatever party is at the helm of affairs in the country.
Then, whatever happened to online tests? Or having more test centers in each state? Because handling 55,000 candidates in a place is a really herculean task and will take proper and well thought out organization to execute successfully. But asking 70,000 people to come to a 55,000 seat-capacity stadium for an exam is surely a suicide mission. I don't know about you but I was not the least bit surprised to hear about the stampede and resulting casualties from the various test centers; even though most Lagosians weren't expecting the traffic gridlock that occured around the Surulere and Onikan stadia. Why didn't the NIS use part of the extorted money to pay a professional recruitment agency that would have most certainly handled the exercise better?
Really, will the scripts of those who eventually wrote and submitted the test be marked? Is there even a need to mark the scripts where almost everybody likely wrote the same thing? Why invite more than 300,000 people to come and slug it out for vacant positions of just 3,000? Were the real owners of the job (i.e. the ones with the Ogas at the top) among the teeming crowd that thronged our stadia for the recruitment exercise or within the comfort of their homes waiting to be called upon to come and receive their employment letters?
Already I've started seeing disgusting news like PDP mourns Immigration recruitment victims, demands immediate investigation in the media, and I know APC, CAN, OPC and the rest of the busy-body organizations in Nigeria will follow suit too, like they always do after every tragic incident that occurs in the country. I'm sure the National Assembly will start fruitless questionings on the ill-fated exercise. In saner climes, the immediate sack or resignation of the heads of NIS will be the first fallout of this incident, but does our President have the spine to issue this order? I don't think so. Will the victims' families be compensated by the NIS or Nigerian government? I don't think so too. Will we rise to protest this latest injustice done to us? Absolutely not, we've already perfected the art of coping and smiling while suffering.
Meanwhile, may the souls of the job seekers cum martyrs rest in peace. But what's the guarantee that we won't be repeating this prayer next time NIS holds its recruitment exercise again?
They only listen when the political canditate is not from their father's village. People jst lamenting, GEJ is multiplying all d job seekers by 2000 naira for 2015. Blind youths !!!! And many after dat stress will go back to d creeks n b singing "Jonathan come from our side". I'm sure dey will all fail if test were to b marked (definitely not).. I don't see pple who can't see beyond ethnicity, tribalism n religion passing even such a simple test.
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