NIS RECRUITMENT: WHEN JOB SEEKERS BECOME MARTYRS

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.

NIGERIA AT 100: WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE CELEBRATING?

It’s a very sad me typing this right now. Just when I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that $20 billion of our commonwealth had been stolen and we weren’t ever going to get it back, since the whistle-blower aka noisy CBN governor had been ousted, I learnt about the gruesome killing of over 50 teenagers in a Federal Government College in Yobe state by the Boko Haram sect with 20 girl children abducted in the process ( as I write this, I’m pondering with fear what exactly those girls, if they are still alive, will be going through right now). I lived in the boarding house of a Federal Government College for three years myself and I still remember vividly the few and far between times we heard stories like a man coming into the hostel to rape girls and the beating of some supposed  student witches by fellow students and the kind of fear those stories put me in for days and weeks. So I can’t even begin to imagine what those teenage students experienced that dark night. I was still in shock about the incident when I learnt the Boko Haram sect had invaded a village in Adamawa and slaughtered over 20 people. All these in less than one week! At that point, I wasn’t sure my heart could take any more bad news from Nigeria, preferring to just read about happenings around the world from CNN and co. Only for me stumble across a news item that the Federal Government had drawn up a list of 100 people for Centenary awards that will be handed out during the 100 years’ of Nigeria. Centenary what? I quickly found the list on the internet and on skimming it, it dawned on me that even after 100 years of being a country- and more than 53 years of being independent- we still don’t have a clue of what we are doing or where we are headed.