President Goodluck Jonathan and the Senate are attempting to sweep the scandal of the 19 jobseekers killed last March in an immigration recruitment scam under the carpet. Almost five months after the botched recruitment interview led to stampedes and deaths, no concrete action has been taken. Now, the more damaging scandal is the way this and other investigations have been suppressed. It is the sacred responsibility of the government to hold the Interior Minister, Abba Moro, and all others responsible for the tragedy to account.
But the unpleasant odours will keep on wafting around the Jonathan government. A democracy where the will of the people is paramount and the president and parliament are elected representatives of the citizens cannot afford such impunity. Nigeria must join the civilised world. Jonathan and the National Assembly must raise the bar of accountability in public office beyond the mediocre level they have been offering.
Ongoing attempts by the leadership of the Senate to join the Executive in covering up this tragedy are reprehensible. The report of the Senate Committee on Interior set up in March to probe the recruitment disaster was reportedly submitted over two months ago. Yet, it has not been discussed. A recent report in this newspaper indicated that the report was not listed for discussion until the upper chamber went on recess last month. This is another failure of leadership. Like the Presidency, the parliament has been insensitive to public feelings. On resumption in September, the senators must debate the report and act decisively.
The sordid facts are still fresh in our memory. Acting in concert with a “consultant,” Moro allegedly bypassed the board of the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Comptroller-General of Immigration and took charge of the recruitment of 4,556 new immigration officers. Each applicant was charged N1,000 for online application. This way, the “consultants” are believed to have made over N520 million.
The shoddy and reckless “test and interview” that followed were a disaster in the waiting as 526,650 applicants were asked to converge on six sites across the country on the same day. Moro’s belated apology for this callous exhibition did not mitigate the necessity of his ouster. Across the world, that a public officer apologised for his failings in a national disaster of such proportions does not free him of the responsibility of resigning or of being sacked and prosecuted. When Jung Hun-Won publicly offered a tearful apology for his government’s alleged tardiness in responding to the April 2014 capsizing of a ferry that killed over 300 people, it did not stop him from resigning as prime minister of South Korea.
On her part, President Park Geun-Hye promptly reorganised the South Korean Coastguard, breaking it up and sacking some officers. Ghana’s President John Mahama sacked a deputy minister who was caught merely expressing a desire to abuse her office and make “a million dollars.” Here, Jonathan continues to harbour incompetent ministers despite the performance bond he made them sign.
Sadly, this again has exposed a prevailing culture of corruption, lies and cover-up in Jonathan’s inner sanctum. Failure to sack Moro and file criminal charges against him and all those involved in that tragic event is a double betrayal of Nigerian youths. They have been betrayed by the failure of the government to formulate and implement innovative policies that will create jobs, reduce poverty and lower inequality despite earnings of N30 trillion from oil and gas between 2007 and 2011, according to the Nigeria Extractive Industries and Transparency Initiative. Yet, we have about 41 million jobless Nigerians, with 56 per cent of the youths said to be jobless by the World Bank’s reckoning. The government cannot provide an enabling environment to absorb the 1.8 million university and polytechnic graduates that Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said enter the job market each year. It is terrible that unemployment has risen so high, but it is unpardonable for any government official to cynically exploit jobless youths.
But on Jonathan’s watch, scandals are as normal as tropical rains. Mention them: from fuel subsidy, BMW waivers to N10 billion private jets etc., all stink to high heaven. These shameless acts are a stain on the Jonathan administration; shredding the President’s credibility and undermining his ability to govern.
We need a paradigm shift in the standards of ethical behaviour in public office in line with global practices. The National Assembly should be more sensitive to the plight of the people. Impunity should have a limit and the blood of 19 innocent youths should have greater value than that of a chicken. Jonathan should rise up to his responsibilities and send Moro packing. Also, the money should be returned to the applicants. We have deplored the government’s offer of employment to relatives of the deceased and to the injured as simply inadequate a response to an event of such a magnitude.
This scandal will remain a blot on the Jonathan administration. Every day longer Moro spends in that office is a direct affront to our youths, a contemptuous message to Nigerians that their feelings don’t matter.
Punch may mean well with this editorial, but there is a sublte move to lay the blame of Nigerian challenges of unemployment in the footsteps of the Minister of Finance. That must be discouraged.