Relations of victims of the scandalous Saturday, March 15, 2014 tragic recruitment exercise conducted by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) are still agonizing for the jobs promised them by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan as compensation for the loss of their loved ones who perished during the poorly organised NIS job interview. Reports said about six million candidates sought to be recruited by the NIS. Each of them was compelled to cough up N1,000 as registration fee. But at the end of it all, the spurious recruitment tests NIS conducted nationwide claimed the lives of about 19 applicants in stampedes, among them four pregnant women.
To pacify the families of the dead and injured job seekers, ex-President Jonathan promised automatic employment for three members of the family of each deceased applicant; and all those injured during the stampedes. Indeed, on Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Jonathan announced the setting up of a committee to carry out the exercise within 12-weeks. But the ‘automatic’ job offers are still elusive as we write. Latest reports said the families of the slain NIS job seekers stormed the Federal Ministry of Interior last Wednesday and demanded appointment letters in line with the jobs promised them by the former President, roughly after 23 months of the promise that has virtually turned a presidential bogey. The tortuous job journey began shortly after Jonathan’s intervention, with reports saying his job promise gave birth to a ‘wound racket’; as scores of dishonest jobseekers laid siege to the National Hospital, Abuja, in their attempt to be listed among those wounded in the NIS recruitment stampede.
Thereafter, about 176 members of the immediate family members of the dead that passed screening were given appointment letters. But the letters were withdrawn almost immediately, purportedly because of the lack of provision for their salaries. Protests by the disappointed ‘employees’ to the National Assembly prompted the House of Representatives to conduct a public hearing on the matter; during which the lawmakers insisted that “the 176 people with letters of appointment deserve employment based on the presidential directive… ”.
The contempt with which the hierarchs of the Ministry of Interior treated the directive of ex-President Jonathan buttressed not just the grave extent of indiscipline now entrenched in the nation’s public service, but how conscienceless and self-serving the operators of the system have become. Indeed, it took the House’s Majority and Minority Leaders, Femi Gbajabiamila and Leo Ogor, respectively, who presided over the public hearing, to lecture the likes of the Permanent Secretary in the Interior Ministry, Abubakar Magaji; Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, Henry Malgwi, who represented the Comptroller-General; and A. A. Ibrahim, Secretary of Board, Fire, Immigration and Civil Defence services, on how to go about their jobs. “If you collect money from students and fill a stadium, where was the salary going to come from in the first instance? Salaries are not given by the President; there is something like supplementary budget which the National Assembly has power to approve.
I advise you effect these people’s employment in arrears and put their salaries in the supplementary budget”, Gbajabiamila had told them, for example. While the unredeemed job promise controversy was still raging, however, reports had it that NIS hierarchs secretly recruited about 300 persons within few weeks, late last year, and were paying them salaries. Mr. Edmund Osumah, who led members of the aggrieved families to the National Assembly last Wednesday, said the Permanent Secretary in the Interior Ministry appealed to them that “serious attention is being given to the matter”. Incidentally, similar fickle and unimpressive stories were told when the House of Representatives took up the matter last October.
We recall that the lawmakers had directed that the victims be absorbed by the NIS or risk the non-approval of this year’s budget of the Service. It has therefore become imperative to draw the attention of the House of Representatives to the care-free attitude of the leadership of the NIS and Interior Ministry towards addressing the plights of members of the distressed immediate families of the dead NIS job seekers. Government is a continuum. The integrity failure of the Jonathan administration on this matter in no way diminishes the importance of fulfilling the presidential job promise. The House of Representatives should intensify pressure on the Interior Ministry and NIS to release the jobs.
