The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Recruitment: A Scam

The multiple interview exams that simultaneously took place across different stadiums nationwide on March 16, 2014 were not accidents but artificial tragedies.

 In search of meaningful employment, some young Nigerians lost their lives in the course of the recruitment exercise conducted by the Nigerian Immigration Service.

However, there are some open ended questions yearning for sincere answers. One of the questions clouding different mind is the need for an application fee from applicants before job consideration at a federal institution, when the citizens faithfully pay taxes.

It's still amazing how the prospective employers expected broke unemployed graduates to squeeze out from their meagre income, if any, for an oversubscribed job position.

Since this unfortunate incidence, the drum beats of enquiry by our federal law makers has become a fading music. Whoever came up with such ideas has branded the federal structure a never ending comedy.

Another thought is the staggering number that showed up at the respective venues with the hopes of possible job placements gives the real picture of the unemployment menace in Nigeria.

The turnout for the recruitment process were not simply merry makers but desperate youth with hopes of securing a job position. Our mathematical economic improvement is making headlines in several newspapers; however, the reality on the street does not need a soothsayer.

With figures of unemployed youth collated at the different recruitment venues approaching 1 million without conducting a census, one can confidently conclude that we have had a natural human disaster in our hands. In theory, the approximately 700,000 applicants have completed the mandatory 365 days National Youth Service.

Hence, why didn’t the entire government structure observe its own National Job Creation Service? What were the expectations of the three tiers of government after the mandatory national service? Would graduates suddenly varnish from the surface of the earth into thin air?

Yearly, our various institutions of higher learning award degrees to a large number of students. In the same year, many get employed on a temporary basis with paid allowances when mobilised into the National Youth Service Corps program.

However, the sunny days are quickly replaced by dark clouds after the passing out parade when the reality of depleted funds sets in.

With the highly saturated labour market of jobless graduates armed with an NYSC certificate, the organisers of the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment should have anticipated a crowded session.

However, the recruitment process carried out by the Nigerian Immigration Service was not about reducing our unemployment crises; it was actually designed as a money spinning scam to con the numerous frustrated graduates.

If approximately 5000 job spaces were available, what was the idea behind taking such large number of applications? This simply highlighted the interest of the prospective employers; since it was a profit making venture, more applications would be necessary.

However, the profits from such transactions were not declared while taxes were not remitted by private institutions in the spotlight.

It would be intriguing to understand how approximately 700 million Naira realised from application fees could not put together a decent recruitment process.

Additionally, I believe the dignity of the Nigerian graduate was bruised by the frame work of the entire recruitment process where a football stadium served as venue for a written test.

With blown egos, the organisers carefully entertained Nigerians with the professional blame game to dwindle the aftermath of their poorly executed scam.

Let’s not wait for any probe; it’s a publicity stunt with temporal background noise to hype the audience expectations.

It should be seen as a criminal act for any Government to ask its youths to provide their own jobs after a program such as the NYSC, especially in a country where the basic amenities required for such endeavours come at a high costs.

The current Nigerian system can be described as a jungle with a survival chain where the tertiary consumers feed on all including the crumbs.

If there are any recommendations to avert such disasters as the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment scam in future, it is the provision of the basic social amenities, at least, affordable uninterrupted power supply.

Let’s be factual, the unemployment problem in Nigeria would not fizzle out due to promises from the forth coming 2015 elections.

For many years the same old tunes have been rehearsed by our politicians at our market squares while the audience (Nigerian Citizens) dance in anticipation of a new dawn.

Hence, I submit that the change we hope for would only materialise when we begin to comprehend what the normal everyday life of the average Nigerian should actually reflect.