The death of no fewer than 19 job seekers at the last nationwide job recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Immigration Service was a sad reminder of how bad things have gone in this country.
If over 700,000 applied for just 4,560 vacancies then it goes without saying that the unemployment situation in the country is far worse than we thought. And the unemployed are not just the ones without formal or informal jobs they include some in paid employment whose take home cannot take them home so to speak.
The situation is further compounded by employment/job placement agencies that have contracts to recruit or supply workers for some blue chip companies. The job seekers get the job no doubt, but they are forced to share their salary with the agency that recruited them.
I didn’t know about this until a nephew got a job with one of the third generation banks. She had been at home for two years after her National Youth Service and was desperate to get a job. She was invited for what I would call ‘blind’ interview because they weren’t told which company wanted to hire them. Lucky to scale the first hurdle, she was invited along with a few others for the second interview after which she was offered provisional employment. The bank offered about N130, 000 as monthly salary but the agency to which their employment was contracted wanted half of the money or no job for them.
For obvious reasons, she rejected the offer but a lot of her colleagues couldn’t because they just needed to get somewhere to go in the morning and return in the evening under the guise of working even if the salary could barely cover their transport fare. They cannot continue to stay at home any longer. The frustration of joblessness had driven them almost to the point of insanity, so any job would do.
I thought this was rubbish and was going to fight it until a friend told me it was not a new thing and spoke of a relation who is into that kind of slavery employment with this same third generation bank.
You can now imagine why over 700,000 applied for 4,560 jobs. The NIS being a Federal government agency guarantees job security and is relatively well paying. Nobody shares your salary with you except your family and relations. And all things being equal you can expect to work till your retirement and earn a hefty gratuity and good pension thereafter.
These are some of the attractions of government jobs whether federal, state or local, and they probably explain why those 700,000 Nigerians wanted to work with the NIS. It would not be out of place to say that not all of them are unemployed. A few just wanted to change jobs and thought being an Immigration Officer is a better option.
If job security and perhaps better pay are some of the attractions to Federal Government jobs, why can’t other employers offer same for their workers? The situation is worse in the private sector where most employers hire casual labour in their workforce primarily to reduce cost and also free themselves from all obligations under permanent employment.
Salaries are often not paid as and when due and the workers for fear of being sacked keep quiet hoping that tomorrow would be better. And when they remember the number of years they spent at home before getting the job, they would rather hang on than challenge their employers or resign; half bread they say is better than none, you hear them say.
Some parents had invested so much in the education and training of their children with the lawful expectation that the children would get a good job after graduation to be able to take care of them in their old age. Unfortunately things have not turned out that way for most of them. Some in their old ages are still sustaining their adult children; it is this bad.
I am sure most of those 700,000 Nigerians that turned out at designated centres across the federation last Saturday for the 4, 560 NIS jobs took all these into consideration before they applied for and headed for the interview. But what did they get? Tears, sorrows and blood.
The choice of the National Stadium in Abuja and other similar facilities across the federation for the interview showed that the NIS anticipated a large turnout of applicants, so, what or how did they prepare for them? In Abuja where no fewer than seven persons died, little or nothing was provided for the almost 70,000 that turned up for the interview in terms of medical service. Under normal circumstances, a venue that can accommodate 70,000 people at once must as of necessity and rule be provided with basic medical facilities in case of emergency. Was any provided by NIS at the stadium last Saturday?
The Minister of Interior Abba Moro, under whose control the NIS falls, in an unguarded statement blamed some of the applicants for being unruly and accused some of turning up even when they did not apply for the job. What a stupid talk? Even if they were not invited, which I doubt, the NIS and by extension the Ministry of Interior should have made adequate preparation for crowd control in cases of emergencies like last Saturday’s. More so, NIS being a paramilitary organization should have trained its officers and men in effective and safe crowd control. If this had been done, there would have been no need to use the military to control the surging crowd.
There are so many gates leading into and out of the main bowl of the Abuja National Stadium, why was it that only one of them was opened to let the applicants in? Was this the NIS way of controlling the crowd?
We often wonder why Nigeria doesn’t get the nod to host international events like South Africa by the international organizing bodies; this is one of the reasons. You can imagine if last Saturday’s job interview was an international event and what an embarrassment it would have been for our country internationally?
I remember one Challenge Cup semi of final match at the Surulere, Lagos National Stadium sometime in the late 70s played under floodlight. The match ended in favour of the less fancied team and somebody somewhere in the Stadium Management decided to put off the floodlight immediately after the match apparently as punishment for the winning team and its supporters. In pitch darkness, the spectators started filling out only to see all the gates but one locked. The stampede was exactly like last Saturday’s and many souls were lost.
We didn’t learn anything from that experience. In 2008 people also died during job recruitment exercise by the same NIS and its counterpart in the Nigeria Prison Service. It doesn’t seem we learnt anything from that experience either. Only if don’t fail to learn from their mistakes and they are condemned to repeating it. Are we fools in this country?
This is no time to point accusing fingers at anyone as all of us are guilty of not planning well or not being faithful to our plans. This is one of our national problems and the earlier we tackle it together with our other problems the better. But then, some people must be punished for the death of this Nigerians, let’s start with Comrade Abba Moro and his team including the NIS leadership.
Over to you President Goodluck Jonathan.
