Still On The Recent Nigeria Immigration Service Recruitment Exercise: Does Time Really Matter?

There are some issues that are historic. One of such is the recent Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) recruitment exercise, which started in the last quarter of 2013. It could be recalled that the NIS circulated information in early September, 2013, for recruitment into its vacant positions and urged interested applicants to submit their applications online before 20th October, 2013. While there are less than 5000 vacant positions in the NIS, about 600,000 applicants submitted their applications, with the payment of NGN 1000, as application fee (per applicant).

Apparently, these unemployed youths were happy after successful submission of their applications, because it is an opportunity to get employment. However, it took the NIS recruitment examination's organizers about 5 months to conduct the recruitment test. The examination, which was precisely conducted on 15th March, 2014, across the nation, claimed the lives of about 18 job applicants and many others sustained life threatening injuries, due to stampede caused by poor management of the crowd that came to take the examination.

As a result of that tragedy and poor conduct during the examination, the federal government on 19th March, 2014, canceled the NIS and consequently set up a committee that will ensure a more transparent and acceptable recruitment exercise. It is about 10 months since this NIS recruitment started and about 5 months since the canceled recruitment examination. How many more months do the unemployed youths that applied for the vacant positions have to wait before another recruitment examination? How many months will it take to complete the entire recruitment exercise?

These are really not clear. It could be recalled that a similar tragedy occurred in 2008, during the Immigration and Prisons Board recruitment, in which applicants were required to cover a race of about 3.2 kilometers within 20 minutes to ascertain their physical fitness, after which they took a paper examination to test their intellectual power. Then, while the examination organizers may have done a good in categorizing and conducting the test on separate days; 5th and 12th July, 2008, for the A and B applicants' categories respectively, they seem to have failed by conducting a physical fitness exercise before a paper test.

If the paper examination was conducted first, it would have reduced the number of applicants to a manageable level, before the physical exercise. However, the physical exercise was conducted first and in the process, some applicants lost their lives and while some sustained physical injuries. And while both the 2008 and 2014 recruitments recorded tragedy, the 2008 recruitment final shortlisting of successful candidates published in some national newspapers was completed within three months (17th October, 2008).

Although the criteria used for such shortlisting was not made known (the examination results was not published). It was expected that an exercise of such nature (trailed with tragedy), the method used should be made known. And since it was not published, the unsuccessful applicants see the recruitment exercise as a selection.

However, Nigerians want to believe that lessons have learned from the previous recruitment exercise. Apart from giving equal opportunity to all applicants, a transparent flesh recruitment exercise, with the federal government programs, such as the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (YouWin) and the Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES), would at least contribute a little towards youth employment.

Moreover, there is a need for a timely completion of the NIS recruitment exercise, and also develop many holistic initiatives and approaches to address youth unemployment- build a strong vibrant Nigeria that utilize its abundant human and material resources. The time is now!

Augustine N. Ezeji (Communication and Research Officer with Rural Africa Water Development Project, Owerri)