Unemployment, Dangote’s PhD Drivers, & Fraudulent Job Schemes, Syndicates in Nigeria
By Don Okereke

There is no gainsaying the fact that the unemployment quotient in Nigeria increases geometrically. The government is helpless and bereft of fresh ideas. Government officials busy themselves bandying unrealistic figures of phantom jobs created by the government. Devoid of the enabling environment, lack of electricity etc, the Private Sector that could have created jobs is comatose. Every year our higher institutions churn out thousands of graduates who join the unemployment bandwagon.

Joblessness and hopelessness has a knock-on/butterfly-effect on crimes, insecurity and instability. An idle mind they say is a devil’s workshop.

On Self Employment

A lot of people talk about self employment and all that. Where does a dilettante and unproven Nigerian graduate start from where he is asked to pay two years house or office rent in advance, no loan or overdraft facility from the bank and no safety net. Where a bank agrees to give a loan, it is at 25% interest. I recall a friend of mine has a limited liability company in England. Immediately he opened a business account there his bank promptly granted him 10,000 pounds interest free overdraft facility. Tell me a Nigerian bank that can do that when they are busy chasing deposits and deducting sundry charges from unsuspecting customers.

In most advanced countries one can incorporate a company online within 24-48 hours. Contrast it with Nigeria where it takes the Corporate Affairs Commission several weeks to search the availability of a name and to reserve it. Over here, you need to bribe a gateman to submit your proposal and must know somebody who knows somebody to have your proposal considered. You also have to part with 10-20% to grease the palms of those that ‘pushed’ your proposal. God bless you as an entrepreneur in Nigeria, your business needs electricity supply. Business is not magic, there is always a learning phase/curve and things may not pan out the way it was thought out. One is not been pessimistic; this is the reality of everyday life and doing business in Nigeria. My take is that doing business in Nigeria could be rewarding especially if you have the right contacts but it is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

Travails of Job-Seekers in Nigeria

Recently, job seekers in Abuja protested the ‘’dumping of application forms by Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior’’. Report has it that completed application forms timely submitted by job-seekers were dumped outside the gate of the ministry.
It’s no news that a plethora of vacancy adverts in Nigeria is just a formality to give a semblance of adhering to laid down procedures. Unqualified candidates with the right connections may have been penciled down and may have commenced the job before the advert. Enlistment into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), State Security Service (SSS) and other prestigious federal and State establishments are exclusively reserved for candidates of Governors, Senators, and Ministers etc. There is preponderance for sacrificing merit in the altar of god-fatherism and ethnic jingoism. A plethora of Nigerian graduates and job-seekers don’t believe there is merit anymore. They will bluntly tell you that it is not what you know or studied in the university but who you know.

Sequel to the high unemployment rate, most employers of labour in Nigeria think they are doing employees a favour by offering them jobs forgetting that qualified employees add value and creates wealth. Knowing how risky our roads are, often times, job-seekers spend thousands of naira traveling from one place to the other to sit for an aptitude test or an interview. Scores of prospective employers in Nigeria lack the decency and courtesy to do a generic email or Bulk SMS to unsuccessful applicants informing them they were not successful and wishing them well in their future endeavor.

Here goes the Punch Newspaper of November 7, 2012, Page 9, ‘’The Federal Character Commission says it has started investigations into 16 federal government agencies for secretly employing people in violation of the Federal Civil Service guidelines’’. In a sane country, this is a very serious indictment and heads will roll. One will bet that nothing will come out of the so-called investigation and hullabaloo. This buttresses the well-known fact that many government jobs in Nigeria are seldom advertised. More often than not, applicants that get the job never bothered to apply. I recall a case where a recruit into the Nigerian Air force was sent with orders from above to commence training after others have been in training for 3 months. Nobody asked any questions, not even the instructors. Almost certainly he was a candidate of a well-connected god-father.


Dangote’s PhD Drivers

Lately, news filtered in that Dangote Group advertised vacancy for 100 truck drivers and about 8,000 B.Sc, 700 M.Sc and 6 PhD holders were said to have applied. Imagine how many graduates will apply for the so-called white-collar positions advertised by Banks, Oil, and telecommunication firms etc. Why won’t employers in Nigeria feel they are doing an employee a favour when 10,000 or more graduates are chasing a job meant for 100 people?
Make no mistakes about it. It is not unlikely to find a truck/taxi driver or a Strip Club dancer in the United States or Europe with a PhD. Abroad, doing such jobs will likely be transient, need to rake in extra income, out of choice or a passion for that career path. Overseas, there is dignity of labour; nobody looks down on you for what you do for a living.

It cuts no ice with me if a Professor voluntarily opts to be a hairdresser so much as he/she has a passion for it. Certainly a Professor that opts for a hairdressing career will bring innovation to the table and will obviously be one of the best around. I am only concerned when out of desperation; a Professor opts for a career path just to eke out a living. With our proclivity for flaunting our titles, certificates and desire to be esteemed by other folks, it’s most likely out of desperation and hopelessness that a typical B.Sc or PhD holder in Nigeria will apply to be a truck driver. A United Kingdom Metro Newspaper of Thursday, April 24, 2008 reported ‘’Switch from Banks to Planks was Plane Crazy’’. It’s the story of a City banker with UBS who left his £80,000 (Twenty million naira!)-a-year job to be a Carpenter! According to him, ‘’I am not making nearly as much money as I used to as an investment banker but I have a better quality life’’.

Fake Employment Syndicates & Schemes

Fraudulent recruitment schemes and syndicates are on the prowl and rise in Nigeria. They capitalize on the extreme anxiety of gullible job-seekers to swindle them.

Government ministries and agencies are deeply enmeshed in extorting money from job-seekers. It is an open secret in Nigeria that State and Federal vacancies are for the highest bidders. State and Federal jobs attract the sum of two to three hundred thousand naira.
It is now the in-thing for government agencies and departments to sell Scratch Cards to job-seekers. A case in point is the much touted former governor Ohakim’s 10,000 phantom jobs for Imo State graduates. Possibly 100,000 or more applicants bought the Scratch Cards at the rate of N2, 000 (two thousand naira). Do the math and you will see how much this raked in. Tell the marines that this is not daylight robbery.

Just recently, ‘’allegations of fraud trailed the recruitment of 500 school teachers in Edo state’’. Eleven thousand people were said to have applied for the 500 vacancies and the folks at the helm of the recruitment were alleged to have demanded two hundred thousand naira from each of the applicants.
The Nigeria Customs also smashed a fake job syndicate in its fold. ‘’An audit committee in the Nigeria Custom discovered that 44 Cadets on training got their appointment letters by bribing corrupt officers of the Service’’.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) docked one Abraham Walson over ten million naira fake job offer. The suspect confessed to collecting the money from about 263 youths.

Just recently, Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Ltd issued a ‘’Disclaimer of Fake Job Offer’’ in some Nigerian Newspapers. The caveat opines that fraudsters faked their logo, email address and website to swindle unsuspecting job-seekers.
Reports like this abound in Nigeria. It’s no news anymore and there is no outrage when such news or report comes to limelight.

Modus Operandi of Fake Employment Schemes, Syndicates

There is an assortment of employment schemes and syndicates out there. Private Recruitment Agency is now a booming business in Nigeria. Just set up a modestly furnished office, advertize for non-existent vacancies and watch as thousands of unemployed graduate’s troop to your office. For a start, the self-styled Recruitment Agencies ask the job-seekers to pay registration fees. After this, they will send them text messages inviting them for an Aptitude test. Subsequently they send congratulatory text messages to all the candidates that sat for the test. Another round of money is demanded from the prospective job-seekers.

Some of the fraudulent recruitment agencies have the financial where-withal to place advertorials on newspapers, electronic media and job recruitment sites. Its not every job advert you see in a newspaper that is genuine. They can even clone the website of a genuine organization.
These fake recruitment agencies also print handbills and hire their own people to mete out fliers to passers-by. Some the handbills may read, ‘’A reputable company producing Computers needs the services of …..’’ or ‘’an international organization with branches in 80 countries needs marketers, secretaries, accountants, engineers’’. Sometimes it will just read, “Vacancy’’ (Boldly written) - Factory workers, hotel workers, drivers needed. These handbills usually stipulate salaries for the various positions. The advert may or may not have an address but it will certainly have a boldly written mobile phone number.

Tell-tale Signs it’s a Fake Employment Scheme/Syndicate

The possibilities of technology and human ingenuity cannot be underestimated. It’s not impossible to clone websites. So the website you inadvertently believe belongs to a genuine recruitment organization may have been cloned. Like a chameleon, the fake recruitment syndicates keep changing their names, addresses etc.

Look before you leap! Here is a checklist and tell-tale signs of fake employment schemes or syndicates.
 Does the email address of the company match the name of their website? A company cannot claim to be Halliburton and ask you to send your CV to halliburton@yahoo.com. If it is really Halliburton, then their email address will match their website e.g. vacancy@hilliburton.com. It’s suspicious whenever an advertised vacancy by a supposedly big organization entails sending your CV to a free web mailer like yahoo mail, hotmail, Gmail etc.
 Do they ask you to pay money in advance or part with your first three months salary? If they do, then it is a fake employment syndicate.
 Does the salary look too good to be true, I mean, is it a mouth-watering offer? A man came to my office showing me a job offer in the United Kingdom promising £4,000 a month as an expatriate. The prospective employer promised to do all his paper-work, Visa processing etc. I promptly told him it was a scam.
 Have you ever gotten a call from somebody you don’t know claiming to have served with you in the same Platoon bla la bla during your NYSC days? They go ahead telling you they now work with Slumberger, NNPC, Shell etc and they promise to help you secure employment in their place of work. This seems to be a new formula or template for scammers. A lot of people have fallen for this scam. The caller may have gotten your phone number from the Corper’s magazine of the state you served.
 Fraudulent syndicates sometimes claim to be recruiting expatriates for Oil companies and telecommunication firms. With mouth-watering offers, innocent and undiscerning applicants fall victim to their plot.
 They can also pretend to be a reputable International NGO. Note the difference between this two: USA AID and US AID. The first is fake whereas the second one is genuine.
 Many of these so-called ‘’Network or Multi-level Marketing’’ Schemes are fraudulent. A sizeable number of them are fashioned after the infamous ‘’Ponzi Scheme’’. That is to say that they pay returns from one’s money or from subsequent investors than from ACTUAL profit.

Solutions/Recommendations/Advice

1. Sale of Scratch Cards for employment at the federal and state levels MUST be banned. It is unacceptable for Government Agencies and Departments- the Nigerian Army, Navy, Air force, Customs, Police, Immigration etc to be selling Application Scratch Cards to prospective job-seekers. This has become another revenue spinning venture for such organizations. Prospective recruits into the United States Army or United Kingdom’s Army, does not have to buy a Scratch Card.
2. The federal government should design a one-stop portal where all job vacancies are advertised like the United Kingdom’s Job Centre Plus website. Both public and private sector job vacancies will be advertised through this portal.
3. Activities of the so-called Recruitment Agencies must be regulated. It is criminal to ask prospective job-seekers to part with their first three months salary or to demand upwards of 200,000 naira before an appointment letter or job is given to a prospective employee.
4. Recruitment process must be transparent. All federal government jobs must be advertised. Merit must not be sacrificed in the altar of nepotism or quota system.
5. As a Youth Corper, beware publishing your Personal phone numbers in the Corpers Magazine. Desist from sending your CV to suspicious firms or copying and pasting your CV on giddy recruitment websites. Identity theft is big business!


Don Okereke
donnuait@yahoo.com