SATURDAY, March 15, 2014 would  remain a sad day in the mind of  many Nigerians on account of the about 15 Nigerians who lost their lives and several others injured in their quest for gainful employment into the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS. Tragedy struck when there was a stampede and several of the already fatigued applicants were trampled to death, while others simply passed out.

During a visit to the National Hospital on Sunday, Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, hinted that government will look into the possibility of automatic employment for those injured in the aptitude test stampede that has led to over 15 deaths across various centres in the country.  He added that government would foot the medical bills of those receiving treatment at various hospitals across the country.

The minister who pleaded for understanding of Nigerians over the incident said, “together we can salvage the situation and lay a foundation that will forestal any future occurrence of this type of tragedy.” He blamed the stampede on “people who didn’t even apply, people who were not shortlisted for this exercise turned up yesterday, including pregnant women, to undertake this exercise, and it is very unfortunate”.

Explaining the choice of  stadia nation wide for the recruitment exercise, Moro said it was due to physical exercises which are “very vital component of any enlistment requirement into the Nigerian Immigration Services, and so we didn’t expect that what happened that day was going to happen; we expected orderliness based on the logistic arrangement that was put in place.”

But this is not the first time, NIS recruitment exercise would end up in a stampede. Last year, for instance, the Minister stated that the N1000 collected from applicants was to reduce the number of applications into the Service and, therefore, prevent the occurrence of a stampede. But the N1000 per applicant did not deter job hunters from finding their way to the various venues of the recruitment exercise. In Abuja and Lagos alone over 125,000 applicants were chasing 4,500 jobs with many more applicants thronging the remaining 35 states of the federation. Little wonder the stampede.

Why has the recruitment exercise of NIS become so trouble-ridden? one might ask. The answer is not far-fetched. NIS’s recruitment has not been without controversy because of the many power plays and vested interest at the top hierarchy of the service. During the tenure of former Comptroller General of Immigration, Mrs. Rose Uzoma, a total of 4,000 cadets from level seven downwards were to be recruited and by Service regulations.

This was within the powers and authority of the CG to execute. But sources close to the then CG confided that authorities of the Ministry of Interior demanded 1,000 slots, to which Mrs. Uzoma declined. This sparked series of underground confrontation and in some instances public altercation between the Service and the Ministry of Interior.

Though she still had three months to retire from Service, a terse statement from the Ministry signed by Dr. R.K Attahiru, on behalf of the Minister of Interior, Mr Abba Moro announced her retirement, followed in quick succession by the cancellation of the recruitment exercise.

Recruitment exercise

The statement made available to journalists at the time read in part thus: “I am to further convey that you are to hand over the duties and responsibilities of your office on or Wednesday, January 16, 2013 to the most senior deputy comptroller general of Immigration in the person of Rilwan Bala Musa, mni, who will act as comptroller general of Immigration pending the appointment of a substantive CG of Immigration. On behalf of the Minister of Interior and all members of the board, I wish to thank you for your service to Nigeria. The board wishes you good luck in your future endeavour.”

The minister had following allegations of skewed recruitment in favour of applicants from certain sections of the country and non-advertisement of its recruitment process ordered the cancellation of the recruitment exercise under the sacked CG. Uzoma in her defence of the allegations of secret recruitment exercise into the service at the time despite the insistence of the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character on the matter, informed that the decision of a ‘secret recruitment’ was to prevent the recruitment of terrorists mistakingly into such a highly sensitive organisation.

But Moro rose in stout defence of his Minitsry’s   position and why it supported the cancellation, citing almost the same security reasons as the former CG. Although, he insisted on need the for  “a  more transparent, acceptable and effaceable platform to be established to enlist qualified Nigerians into the service.” Citing the security challenges facing the country, Moro directed the immediate cancellation of the recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service two weeks after the exercise. He directed that all appointment letters issued and documentation carried out should be cancelled until the Civil Defence, Immigration and Prisons Service board met to consider the waiver granted the Nigeria Immigration Service to recruit men and women into the Service.

With these actions, one had thought that there would not be a re-occurence of the 2013 incident. But from every indication, the minister’s actions had not reined in the challenges. The storyline of the trouble with the current exercise is almost a rehash of the last aborted exercise: vested interest and power play between the Ministry, the hierarchy of the NIS, National Assembly as well as the new entrant, a group that addresses itself as the Nigerian Unemployed Youth Vanguard, possibly acting under the influence of any of the big players.

Sources close to the current leadership of the NIS, hinted that the NIS helmsman saw the newspaper advert for enlistment on his way to Abuja, begging the question of why it was not necessary to at least accord the CG the courtesy of informing him of such major event in a department under his watch. Competing demands by vested interests and the consequences of the failure to meet these demands soon found vent in the decision by the Ministry to recruit a consulting firm by the name Drexel Consort to carry out the recruitment exercise as well as the ill advised strategy of adopting on-line application for a fee of N1,000.

Indications that the exercise may run into a hitch came via an oversight visit by the House Committee on Interior. The Committee ordered the immediate suspension of the collection of N1,000 on-line application fee, expressing disappointment that the Ministry had gone ahead to collect the fee inspite of the House’s resolution ordering the suspension of such.

But the minister denied knowledge of such. He said, “I am not aware of the House resolution to stop the collection of N1000. If for any reason the committee had any reservation about what we are doing, we are open to advice. If the committee resolves that we should stop it today, I have no reservation against that.”

Apparently still reeling under the pressure that had been unleashed on it, the Ministry came out with a lengthy clarification signed by the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Fatima Bamidele. She said, “The Ministry of Interior, on Monday September 23, 2013 received in audience, representatives of the Nigerian Unemployed Youth Vanguard led by Mr. Solomon Adodo, National Coordinator and Mr. Usman T. Shehu, National Treasurer. The representatives submitted a letter to the Ministry containing three demands on the on-going recruitment exercise being conducted by the Ministry for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

The demands are that the Ministry should: (a) Forthwith, refrain from charging the unemployed youths the N1,000 fee; (b) Refund the monies so far collected from the job seekers thus far (sic)”; and (c) Conduct the on-going recruitment exercise in a fair and undiscriminating manner”.

The Ministry considered the demand and replied as follows: (a) That there was an earlier effort by the Ministry to recruit officers for the NIS’ (b) That the exercise which was manually done was mired in controversy and had to be discontinued; (c) Subsequently, a new ICT-based recruitment exercise had to be adopted for the purposes of fairness, transparency and accountability in line with the transformation agenda of the government; (d) That a consultant was engaged to provide internet platform to enable applicants access the application forms which will enable the Ministry process the applications.

The consultant was authorised to charge a maximum processing fee of N1000 per applicant to cover the cost of scratch card to access the site. This is intended to save the applicants the cost of travelling to Abuja to submit their applications, as well as avoid other inherent risks including unauthorised middlemen activities and other abuses