₦airaland Forum

The current recruitment excercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) is mostly likely to be canceled next week by President Goodluck Jonathan based on the controversy and public outcry against the N1,000 processing charges being collected from each applicant. Even though the Service claims that the amount charged for scratch cards is paid to their recruitment Consultants, the National Association of Unemployed Youth have put a serious resistance against the Charges. Apart from writing a petition to the Presidency and National Assembly against the charge, the President of the Association, Solomon Adodo and his Publicity Secretary appeared on 99.5fm Nigerian info (talk, news and sport station) yesterday evening on Kimberly Nwachukwu's show and articulated the bitterness of the unemployed against the charge. According to Mr. Solomon, it is the height of wickedness from the government to ask the unemployed to pay money to apply for job. He stated further that the sum of N1,000 charged appear immaterial (even though it is still a huge sum to some job seekers with no source of income) but when the sum is multiplied by the number of the unemployed, it translates into billions of Naira. According to him, the number of unemployed is put at 40million. If say 5% applied and pay N1,000 each, immigration would have raised a sum of N2 billion from the unemployed. He beleived this is extortion. He clarified further that even if the fund is for the consultant, it is like issuing the Consultant a blank cheque to raise billions of Naira from the 40million unemployed Nigerians. He stated further that the cost of recruitment consulting should be the responsibility of the employers and not that of the job seeker. In his words "if this administraton could dole out billions of Naira to the Niger-delta millitants who are nothing but criminals and proposed to dole out even more to the Boko-Haram members in the north for carrying out arms against the State, would it be out of tune for government to pay the consultants fee for recruiting the unemployed Nigerians? What the unemployed is facing in this Country is enough to make him take up arms. This is some one who has acquired education and good skills, yet has no job. Many are homeless and beg to feed but still remain law abiding citizens in the midst of their plights, yet all the government could think about is to look for ways to extort money from these set of people in the name of providing jobs. This is unfair and unacceptale. We shall use everything at our disposal, including the law, to stop it". Many Nigerians phoned-in and passionatelly condemned the charge. It was really a very heated discussion as Nigerians vented their anger against what many described height of inhumanity by people who enjoyed free education and selected jobs during their days. A twist was eventually brought into the discussion when the Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Job creation, Josephine Washima called-in to hear her views on the matter. She started by commending the President and the publicity Secretary (who she claims to be well-known to her) for their passion and commitment to the course of the unemployed youth. She stated further that her submissions on the matter is the insider's (government) view as she speaks on her authority as the SA to Mr. President. She mentioned that it is against the Nigeria labour law for any would-be employer to charge potential employee any money under any guise even befor the employment contract. She said as such, the presidency have met and decided to stop the recruitment excercise in the Nigeria Immigration Services. She further said anyone who has paid in any Bank for the excercise would have his/her money refunded. According to her, the official announcement would be made next week on resumption from independence public holiday. She stressed further that the arguement of some of the recruting government Institution is that they do not have budget for recruitment in the year but have staff needs. She also said that not only government should be blame for this extortion but also Banks that are used as conduit pipe to collect this money. She mentioned further that it is not solely a leadership problem but a societal decadence as she mentioned a case of a syndicate in the eastern part of the country which opened Account in a Bank in the name of Head of Service of Federation to siphon money from unsuspecting job seekers. She enjoined all Nigerians to report similar cases to the government. In his closing remarks, Mr. Solomon, while descibing the SA's view as victory for the unemployed expressed his gratitude to the her for the hope she has brought for the unemployed. He was however quick to point out that there is no sense scrapping the recruitment as millionns of Nigerians need job but only that they should not be made to pay any charge while the recruitment itself should be free, fair and devoid of god-fatherism