by Ibironke Oluwatobi

The level of unemployment in the country has made recruitment news seem like an oasis in the desert.  Job advertisements have beaten commodities like coca cola and gala to attract the most patronage. Whenever these scarce advertisements are made, the attention of millions of people is caught; hundreds of thousands apply, hoping to land a lifesaver job. The mass of applicants that job advertisements generate is a clear testimony to the aggressive demand for employment opportunity in the country. The unemployed people are diligently engaged in the task of job seeking. Mr Arousa Osemwinge, a seasoned Human Resources person captured the Nigerian employment arena in his book title “getting a job is a job”. Indeed, in Nigeria today, getting a job is a serious job.

The unemployment situation in the country made job creation a must-do for the government. True to the promise made during the 2015 general elections, the Federal Government today, and few state governments have made good effort at providing jobs for the job seekers in the country. Government institutions like the Nigerian Police Force, Nigerian Armed Forces and several government organizations have embarked on recruitment process at different times in the year. The response these job openings generated statistically, are figures synonymous with election results. The Nigerian Police Force recruitment exercise for instance, saw about 1,000,000 Nigerians jostling for 10,000 slots. This is to confirm that people need jobs desperately and the government has appeared to offer answers.

The latest of the Federal Government intervention to the country’s situation of unemployment is the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) recruitment exercise. Interested applicants are expected to apply online via the recruitment portal of the agency. This would seem to be good news to the yearning ears of unemployed Nigerians. As expected, hundreds of thousands of Nigerians have shown interest. However, the portal through which applications should be sent has not been functional. This has caused interested applicants to visit Federal Civil Service Commission offices in different parts of the country to submit their application. Normally, these applications should be submitted at the offices of the agency but the officials refuse to take applications. Those that accept applications state clearly that there is no guarantee of application transfer to the central office in Abuja. This means that submission is at applicant’s risk except that there was no signage carrying the information.

Certainly, the bureaucracy of the process would serve the purpose of shooing off applicants as it seems travelling to Abuja is the only way an application would get a chance of consideration. This is a strange and preposterous act of recruitment. It becomes necessary to question the intention of the job advertisers, starting with the validity of the advertisement. FCSC offices confirmed that the agency is indeed recruiting; it only appears that the recruitment is not for the general populace. Numerous complaints on the problem encountered in the process of applying have been lodged to the agency. It is baffling that nothing of note has been done to make corrections. Could the malfunctioning portal be a deliberate act?  Is this a case of special reservations for the influential and privileged?

This would mean acting against everything the government of today has promulgated. i.e. anti-corruption, transparent job opportunities, economic empowerment etc. Already, the high demand for jobs has made job seekers easy targets for scammers and job scams have become rampant in the country but when a Federal Government agency adopts questionable acts in its recruitment exercise, eyebrows should be raised. It is disappointing enough not to be able to secure an employment after collecting certificates and degrees but experiences like that of the FCSC job application is like rubbing shame on one’s face. The government and its agency should not be caught in acts of this nature. Transparent and fair recruitment exercises should be encouraged in the country and the government, through its agencies should be the vanguard. Since the FCSC job opening is still available till November 2016, work should go into making the channels of application accessible and effective. This would reflect the government’s commitment to truly solving the country’s unemployment problem. It should be noted that the workforce is a pivotal part of national administration and qualified hands rather than preferences would help steer the nation in the right direction.

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Ibironke Oluwatobi writes via [email protected]

Twitter: @ibironketweets

Op-ed Editor