Tag: escape

One year after the tragic immigration job exercise that claimed 15 lives and injured so many young Nigerians across the country, Yetunde Oladeinde takes a trip down memory lane with one of the victims.

In search of a better future, some youths thronged the venues of the Nigeria Immigration Service recruitment exercise on March 15, last year. For them it was an opportunity they had been waiting for, an opportunity they believed would bring them closer to their dreams. Unfortunately this was not to be. The poorly organised recruitment exercise resulted in an unprecedented crowd disaster that eventually led to the death of 15 young Nigerians, who had thronged the various centres across the country.

Onyebuchi Collins, one of those who applied in the 2014 exercise tells his story: “I applied last year at the Lagos centre online and paid the N1000 fee at Fidelity Bank, Allen Avenue. My wife also applied and we were very hopeful. When we saw the advert for recruitment, we were excited and fulfilled all the necessary requirements. On the fateful day we went to the National Stadium in Surulere. It was fun and we felt like young corps members at the orientation camp once again. We had to identify self, submit all the documents brought and we were shocked to see them just dump the applications in the open space.”

Collins adds that: “When they started distributing the forms, people were falling over themselves. We could not stand well and everybody just had to scribble something in the forms that was provided at the venue. A lot of people sustained injuries; while others lost valuables, while trying to submit their scripts and leave. A number of us realised at that point that what they were doing was just formality. Thereafter, confusion set in. Many asked them to refund the N1000 but nothing has happened. I am still jobless, one year after; and my wife had to resort to all kinds of things for survival. She is a graduate of Accounting from Nsukka.”

Collins also said he also did the Nigerian Ports Authority examination in Enugu. “I travelled all the way last year to do the exams. I applied in Lagos but they posted me to Enugu to sit for the exams, I met a lot of people there and the crowd was also like the Immigration recruitment. We have not also heard from them and when you get to the Ports authority office in Marina, they keep telling you that there is no information. I don’t want to apply for the NIS job again because I do not have faith in the process. I have been discouraged. Before now, my wife and i worked in a bank, but there was a cash lite policy and we both lost our jobs in 2011.”

One of the questions begging for answers is the need for application fee from poor applicants before job placement, consideration this is all happening at federal parastatals and institutions, run by citizens’ tax money. Sadly, it would be recalled that the same thing happened in 2010, when the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) advertised vacancy in some positions and slammed a price tag for applicants. “It is a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, especially for positions that are over-subscribed. Where do they expect unemployed graduates to get money from? Where is the much talked about hope for youths by our leaders? This is all very frustrating,” says Vivian Adigun who has been in the labour market for about five years.

Interestingly, a year after the disaster a fresh Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise is ongoing and in fact ends today, Sunday March 22, 2015. Tagged Massive Graduate Recruitment, the three categories to be filled are: Superintendent Cadre, Inspectorate cadre and Immigration Assistant cadre. This year, the application is free. A statement posted online by the presidential committee assisting the recruitments states that “No payment is required to submit an application; any person who seeks to submit application or obtain appointment via other means does so at his or her own risk.” 37 locations are listed across the country and many wonder if the same process used last year would not be used again.

Belated succour

Ironically, the Federal Government last week doled out the sum of five million naira to each of the families that lost their relatives in the tragedy last year. The question on the lips of many is why the present administration has not sanctioned those who sent innocent job seekers to their early graves after extorting them. “It is sad that all those involved in the scam have not been brought to book. The Interior Minister, Mr. Abba Moro who presided over the project is still in office and it makes us ridiculous as a nation”, says Biodun Bakare another unemployed graduate.

In 2012, the NIS did not advertise the vacant posts in the agency. Then the service explained that it wanted to avoid a repeat of the rush during the 2006 recruitment exercise when many applicants also died. The aftermath of that was that, the service came under intense heat for allegedly allotting slots to the first lady, Dame Patience Jonathan and favouring applicants from the South East, where the then NIS comptroller, Rose Uzoma hailed from and other top government functionaries.

Frustration and anger took over and the drumbeats of enquiry into the matter came from different quarters. For a while it looked like justice was close by, but till date the principal actors have not been brought to book. Many continue to exploit the unemployment situation in the country, promising jobs that do not exist, and reaping bountifully there-from.

Mid-last year, three people were paraded in Abuja for allegedly duping job seekers of more than N930, 000 on the pretext of offering them employment into the service. “We want to bring to the notice of the public that people are going about trying to trick Nigerians that are eager to get jobs. We have one who has been going about offering fake letters of employment to people from Edo State, claiming they would give those jobs in the Nigeria Immigration service. The issue of employment in the NIS has been well documented, there is a presidential committee that is already looking into this,” David Parradang, the comptroller General of the service said.