Well done, Adesan790! Brilliant write up... Something for us all to ponder and act on. adesan790:
IT IS TIME TO SPEAKOUT WITH UNANIMOUS VOICES.
There is perhaps no better time or day other than this beautiful democracy day in our country to make comments on many observations I have noticed on this thread since its creation few months ago. The choice of today is not deliberate; it is just a matter of coincidence but I am also glad I have the opportunity of passing this message across on a day like this, given the significance we all attach to this day in our history.
To start with, I commend the spirit of everyone who has posted on this thread ever since, making it interesting to visit almost every day. Apart from the few times of silence the thread encountered, it has actually served a useful medium of relevant information for all the details of the Immigration Service recruitment for several numbers of uncountable times. To be frank, this thread represented a mini picture of what goes on in the larger Nigerian society and, interestingly, I admired almost all the comments. In fact, there was everything you could imagine and think about without discontent.
Yes, there were abuses and counter abuses; allegations and counter allegations; rumors and counter rumors; advices and counter advices; warnings and counter warnings and a whole lots of forecasts, predictions, speculations and confidents boastings of numerous sorts. All these arguments, exchanges, dialogues, talks, conversations etc. to me were just what gave light and essence to the controversial subject of interest under scrutiny. Right from page zero to the current page, I just could not help laughing about all that have been posted; from the pains and agonies of some to the joys and ecstasies of others etc. I have seen all and certainly do have my observations.
My observations stems from the copious evidences from many of the posts herein and this shows that, there was a great deal of intolerance, misunderstanding and the unwillingness of many to accept that opinions can never be the same on a particular concern. No one is an island of knowledge, hence wherever one’s awareness ends, those of others begin. To those who feel the appointed persons from the recruitment should be recalled, they have their points and those who feel otherwise also have their points. Given the discrepancies in thoughts and opinions of this nature, it therefore becomes a herculean task to put everybody on the same page of agreement. If such task can however be achieved, it won’t come by the wanton attacks and counter attacks that have been witnessed herein all along. The only way to make this happen is to give clear details as to the reason why everyone must be on the same page; a thing which I seek to achieve with this enormous piece.
First and foremost, let me remind all of us that about 1.2million applicants initiated applications when the presidential committee advertised vacancies into various cadres of the NIS. However, only about 677,810 prospective candidates concluded their applications as presented from the summary statistics of the presidential committee. For some of us who are conversant with probability techniques (apologies if you dislike mathematics), let’s go a bit technical here.
1. The probability that anyone would be recruited at that time into the service equals 1/677,810 = 0.0000014753
2. Recall the values of probability lies between 0 and 1. That is 0 ≤ P ≤ 1.
3. The decision rule for probability values is that If P assumes the value of 0, it implies the event will not occur and if P assumes the value of 1, then it is certain that the event will occur. Thus the nearer the probability values to 0, the lesser the chance of occurrence and vice versa.
From the above analysis, it becomes crystal clear to all of us that everyone’s chance of being selected at the initial stage was virtually none existent because the probability value of 0.0000014753 is approximately 0. However, after the aptitude test was conducted, the chances selection of the remaining candidates improved significantly because of the reduced number of applicants (i.e. the denominator). Now you may want to query the aptitude test results here that how were those who passed the test determined since the results of the test was not released. Well, I actually went on a fact finding mission to unravel this and I was told that only those candidates who scored above a certain benchmark in the test were forwarded to the committee by the testing body.
I queried further that I have listened to so many complaints, especially from graduates who were certain that they choose the right answers in the tests and were confident about their choice, only to find out that their names did not make the list. The response was that, with multiple choice questions, you can never be too certain about your ingenuity. Where you may think you have chosen the right answers, you may be surprised the computer will mark you down, since it’s been pre-programmed to add and deduct according to your selections. So you can see, you may never know where you went wrong.
Let me give you a quick example as regards the above assertion here. One of my neighbors who went for the just concluded NBC aptitude test in Ikeja came home and told me he came across a question in the test which asked about the tallest building in the world and that he choose The Empire State building, New York, USA and was so confident it was the right answer until we Google it only to find out it was some other building in the UAE. Thus to those who were so assured of what they did during the test, you can never tell where it went wrong. Similarly, I have heard some boast of having masters’ degrees; second class upper yet they know of someone with a lower or pass and such was considered above them. Wow! I laugh. Such persons are quick to forget that objective questions are quite tricky. While you may be very good at your academics in school, this does not guarantee you a high mark in multiple choice questions (especially when it is not your day or your area of study or you may be so unlucky that the computer will just be throwing those questions you aren’t really familiar or certain about). In fact, you may sit with a secondary school leaver in an objective test and the latter may come out with higher scores. This does not mean he is more intelligent than you or smarter than you; in fact, in many cases, such a high score could just be a product of guessed options but right answers, while the confident person who is taking his time and thinking before making his choices, is unfortunately, selecting the wrong answers for that matter.
The selection at the state commands during the oral interview and document verification could have been subjective because human factor was already creeping in at this stage. However, judging by the responses from many participants who got the appointment that they do not know anyone before they were shortlisted, you will agree with me that prejudiced choices were minimal, if at all it happened. Reasons are that, many of those people whose names were forwarded by the computer to have passed the test actually never knew nobody at their various states of origin command where the verification was conducted. The reason for this is very simple; a computer does not know who you are. It does not recognize whether you are the Comptroller General’s child or the Interior Minister’s brother. Once you do not meet the cut, it drops you. In essence, since those who went for the verification and interview were unknown bunch of entities, those saddled with the responsibility of selection were compelled to pick according to the performances of the candidates they interviewed.
I also read a particular piece from someone who said he had a master’s degree and was not given the nod. Well, you see, it wasn’t only academic qualifications that were considered. You may have a Ph.D but with a flat foot, broken tooth, tattoo or drawings on your body, not meet the required height and chest measurement, poor health report and unclear speech. Remember that was the first time contacts was established between candidates and NIS officials and since they know what they are looking for, which may be totally different from what you filled into your application, then it becomes very difficult to determine your suitability for the job. You will recall that certain requirements were stated by the presidential committee for candidates to meet if they must be considered for appointments into the service. Let me paint a little scenario for us here. Let us assume there are two individuals: a Nasir el-Rufai, who came out with a first class from his university and a Buhari, who managed to escape with a third class from his Alma Mata. Both were interviewed for a job. The job is para-military in nature and at the end of the day; Mr. Buhari was selected for appointment into the para-military service, while Mr. El-Rufai was sent a regret letter. What do you think could have worked for Mr. Buhari? (I assume everyone on this thread is familiar with these two notable political individuals in our country and have seen the duo together before? If you have not seen them together before, please try to take note of both men on television whenever the opportunity presents itself and this may give you a clue or even an outright answer to the question posed here).
Similarly, the problem of federal/state character even within the state also comes in. Definitely, you do not expect them to pick the few people they need within your state from just your own local government. About 45 persons or thereabout were selected per state at the end of the recruitment process by the presidential committee and going by the fact that we have about 20 and above or less local governments within a state; this implies that just about 2 -3 persons per local government within each state can be selected; so how were you so sure you were the best even within your local government, knowing fully well that all the local government must be fully represented in the state, since it is a federal job and all the entities making up the whole must reflect the characteristics of the bits and pieces of all. And do you know one funny but stupid thing about this federal character nonsense is that, your performance within your local government in relation to those of other candidates in other local governments within your state may be better than those of the best candidates of those other local governments, but because you are unlucky to be grouped in a local government having very bright and genius candidates, who had extremely good performances in your own local government, you are dropped and they (i.e. poor candidates of other local governments) whom you are better off and far out perform during the exercise, are picked. If you then happen to be friends with those candidates from other local governments, and you find out that they were picked and you were dropped, the next thing is you cry foul and continue to discredit the process as being biased and with arbitrary selection rule without knowing the facts. You may even be tempted to accuse other candidates of going through the back door to secure their appointments.
Given all the above however and knowing this country for what it is as regards the problem of corruption, nepotism, rent seeking and pre-bendal politics, which has eaten deep into the fabrics of those saddled with the responsibilities of appointing individuals into federal MDAs, I do understand the numerous reservations and skepticism that many of us have associated with the recent appointments of 2000 Nigerian youths into the NIS. However, you will be surprised to hear that the reason why the NIS board and ministry of interior are so unhappy with the recruitment exercise is because the presidential committee never succumbed to the lobbying and request for slots from these heavily corrupted institutions. The presidential committee insisted everyone must write the test and pass before nominations can be made and since this approach did not favor the NIS board and ministry of interior as they knew their preferred candidates may not scale through the test, and they knew Jonathan was leaving the presidency soonest, they decided to discredit the process. This tells you the selection process was credible and devoid of pre-bendal politics. Let me ask you a question here; what do you think would have happened if the polls had favoured Jonathan? Do you think this deceptive NIS board/Ministry of interior would have raised any excuse about the recruitment process as they are doing now?
Now my problem with this recruitment is not based on whether the recruitment was political or not? Or whether it followed due process or not? My problem is that, the plight, pains, sorrows and troubles of our innocent youths were being used to determine superiority amongst two unserious and shameful entities: the presidential committee as constituted by Jonathan and the NIS board/Ministry of interior. My concern is not about those who were lucky to get the appointments or those who lost out; my concern lies with the state of despondency in which this type of leadership impunity is causing our youths (Recall innocent Patricia). It baffles me to notice that many of us are not considering this matter from that dimension and I just hope and pray that all of us in this forum will see the larger picture of assault, rape and uncanny insensitivity against the innocence of the youths of this country. After robbing us of our money and killing us in a sham recruitment exercise in 2014, the Nigerian government is still mocking 2000 of our youths (2000 youths for God’s sake!) with appointments made into the NIS by a presidential committee in May, 2015 with suspension and cruelty. I hope and I just hope many of us in this forum will see the larger picture of greed and self-aggrandizement in this impunity by the Buhari presidency and the hypocrite NIS board/Ministry of interior.
How can a charlatan NIS board/Ministry of interior say to 2000 able bodied youths at this point in time that the recruitment was illegal when their appointments have already being made and the youths made to pass through a hell of an induction experience. How can you tell them there was no finance to pay them in a country where billions of dollars are fleeced abroad on daily basis? How can you tell them the presidential committee was not righty constituted at this point in time? Who was in the better position to advice president Jonathan during his moment of madness when he wanted to constitute a presidential committee to assist the immigration on a recruitment the whole nation knows is determined by allocated slots to the president’s mother, his wife, the NIS board/Ministry of interior and politicians? Did the youths of this country beg for the exercise to be conducted by their actions/inactions? Why doesn’t the hypocritical NIS board/Ministry of interior just allocate the slots to themselves as usual and save our youths these agonies? At least many of these youths will only hear appointments have been made and some people sent on course in a weird manner as usual and those not appointed will only grumble underneath and that would just be the cost of not having the job to them.
Why? Why? Why? Why is it that we the youths are not seeing this rape and impunity from this point of view but from the point of personal benefits, thus if it does not benefit me then I will mock others who benefitted when they are being slapped, disrobed and maltreated with sheer impunity for something that is no fault of theirs? For an injustice they did not invite with any of their actions and we, as other youths are sitting down looking without saying anything or even volunteering to protest on their behalf till PMB, the fraudulent NIS board/Ministry of interior and other powers that be will hear us and do the right thing. Permit me to quote HRM Haile Selassie 1, the Emperor of Ethiopia here. He said, ‘throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better and the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
As youths within this forum, please let us eschew all the mockery of the misfortune of our fellow youths ((2000 of them for God’s sake!) and see beyond the fact that you were not appointed, for a larger picture of sheer impunity against these youths of this country. The truth is that the NIS cannot absorb everyone, hence some people must be picked and some dropped. This however does not mean you do not have the right mix of academic qualification or that you may not be qualified in some other ways, or that those appointed were more qualified than you; it only means that certain conditions, which may be implied or even subjective, led to your disqualification. Even in this fact still, it does not mean you are no more; the experience only serves to strengthen you and make you stronger to forge ahead with life and continue to wish yourself luck. Not being appointed does not make you less than what God made you to be and as far as God is concerned, you are good in his sight and he loves you dearly.
Take my case for example, many of you will not believe that I have gone through a good number of federal MDAs recruitment exercise in this country, yet as I speak, I have not been considered for any. However, even in the face of these defeats, I still usually summon the courage to put calls through to many new friends I meet at these recruitment centers and who, in one way or the other, are lucky to be appointed and extend my congratulation to them and then forge ahead with life. I have since realized it doesn’t make me less than who I am and it doesn’t even take my qualifications away. In fact, for the 2014 Abba Moro Youth-Killing NIS recruitment exercise, I was part of the multitude that paid one thousand naira to those fools and when it turned out gory, I intentionally refused to partake in the 2015 exercise when I saw the advert. And with this impunity that I am seeing now; that I was not part of the exercise is not enough to stop or deter me from mobilizing support for these victims to reclaim their right and call our government to order. Thus, I call on fellow youths of this country to please join hands together and buzz these selfish leaders with this unpalatable story of our brothers and sisters wherever they may be and demand the reinstallation of these 2000 appointed youths as announced by the presidential committee in May, 2015. As far as you participated in the exercise when it started, the same fate could have befallen you. Remember that everyone’s probability of selection at the start was equal. Remember also that, an injustice to one is an injustice to all, therefor speak out for your fellow youths who are presently being treated with sheer impunity.
To conclude this piece, let me leave you to ponder with the words of Friedrich Martin Niemoller, whose words are quoted thus: “When the Nazis came for the Communist, I remained silent; I was not a Communist. When they locked up the Social Democrats, I remained silent; I was not a Social Democrat. When they came for the Trade Unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a Trade Unionist. When they came for the Jews, I did not speak out; I was not a Jew. When they came for the Protestants, I was a Protestant, therefore they came for me and there was no one to speak out.
Happy Independence Anniversary. |
Education / Re: Samples Of DPR Past Questions by Arrahdasoul: 2:11pm On Jul 19, 2017