A raft of logistics hassles is making things impossible for those applying to fill vacancies advertised by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) which is trying to compensate some families with slots for the tragedy in the exercise last year.
Among the complaints are poor internet access, squabbles among family members promised automatic slots because they lost wards in the 2014 exercise, and the inability of applicants to produce identification in form of passport, driver’s licence, or national identity card while filling the online application form.
This exercise is a redo of the one held last year in which 18 applicants died. To ensure it goes without incident again, the government set up a committee headed by the head of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Ebele Okeke, to superintend it.
Means of identification
No means of identification is mentioned as recruitment criterion in the newspaper advertisement placement by the Special Presidential Committee. But the NIS portal requests an applicant to indicate one of these means of identification, provide the number, and the validity period.
NIS Public Relations Officer, Obuah Chukwuma, said he is not aware of the demand for such a means of identification to qualify for the recruitment.
“Have you seen the advertisement from the Presidential Committee?” he asked.
“I don’t know anything like that. I am not a member of the committee.
“I have gone through that advert, that is why I am asking you. I didn’t see it. I don’t know where you got it. But this is the second time I am getting this report.”
However, TheNiche learnt from NIS sources that response to the job advertisement has been poor because of the requirements.
“Where on earth have you seen a fresh graduate or people who are yet to work being asked for their passport, or driver’s licence and other requirements that simply tell you there is no hope for you in the job?” one NIS official asked.
Threat of legal action
President Goodluck Jonathan has given the families of victims of last year’s tragedy three slots each to nominate persons who would be given automatic employment in the NIS.
But some victims have threatened to take the government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague over what they described as social injustice and total neglect of applicants who died and those injured.
Edo comptroller not reachable
The victims, through their counsel, O.O. Edmund, alleged that the Edo State Command of the NIS is making frantic efforts to remove their names from the true victims’ list and replace them with cronies who were never affected.
They said the command is parading a list of only five victims from the ill-fated exercise, and also lamented the inability of their lawyer to meet in person with Edo State NIS Comptroller, Kayode Alana.
All efforts to meet him have hit a brick wall, they alleged.
“We beg the Edo State comptroller to expressly implement the presidential directive to the letter; or else, we will have no choice but to seek legal redress even if we have to go to the International Court of Justice in a bid to stop this social injustice that is being planned,” they said.
Sorting out next of kin
But Chukwuma explained that the issue of illegal beneficiaries is what is delaying the recruitment.
His words: “The presidential committee was given 12 weeks to finish their work. When they started, those people that were offered automatic slots by Mr president, everybody started coming forward as next of kin (of the deceased). People started making claims and counter claims. It created a lot of family feud.
“To sort them out and identify the real next of kin was a herculean task, like in a place where people believe that a wife is just a passenger, and that anything coming belongs to the family.
“It dragged the work of this committee for so long. We did not want to make any mistake because litigation could come that the wrong persons were given the slots. The government was very careful to ensure that only the legal next of kin were given the slots.”
Problem with internet access
Chukwuma said fixing poor internet connection to the recruitment portal is out of the control of the NIS.
“Traffic on the website is very heavy. Ask any ICT person, any site that people are frequenting, there is always a traffic jam and it is always slow. I advise people to do it at the dead of the night when other people are sleeping.
“We are in the Third World. Even the GSM which you pay for, sometimes you are making phone calls and they cut you off. This one is even free of charge.”
