NIS Recruitment Tragedy: Don’t Blame Applicants, NLC Tells Minister — March 18, 2014 Following the unfortunate death of applicants last weekend in some centres during the recruitment exercise of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has told the minister of interior, Abba Moro not to blame the job seekers. In a letter dated March 17, 2014 and addressed to the minister through the comptroller of the NIS, Mr David Shikfu Parradang the NLC described such avoidable deaths of job seekers as an unacceptable development which runs against the best employment practices as contained in Nigeria’s Labour Act and relevant conventions and resolutions of International Labour Organisation (ILO) guiding decent work as subscribed to by Nigeria. “The minister is wrong to blame the victim applicants/job-seekers. The blames must go to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) bureaucracy which reportedly collected illegally as much as N6billion from applicants but failed woefully in putting appropriate mechanisms for genuine aptitude tests and applicants crowd control,” NLC stated. A copy of the letter signed by the vice president of NLC, Comrade Issa Aremu and made available to newsmen yesterday in Kaduna recalled that in 2008, similar exercise by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) ended in the unacceptable deaths of scores of applicants. “Just as it was in 2008 (six years ago) the gender dimension of the deaths involved females and pregnant women in Benin. When we consider the pregnant applicants, we have invariably also killed unborn applicants. “For a country that just marked International Women Day with fanfare, the deaths of female applicants do gross violence to the federal and state governments. sclaim to respect human and women rights. These nation-wide unprovoked deaths have negatively dented the notorious image of Nigeria as a country in which lives are being casually wasted in the communities, on the roads and now at recruitment centres. “When tragedies get addictive and widespread, (as it is regrettably becoming the regular trade mark of the Nigeria Immigration Service) these are no more “accidents” or a flash but clearly avoidable incidents. Nigerians do not need another probe panel on this tragedy. In 2008 under Yar’Adua’s administration after similar carnage called recruitment, the Federal Government instituted a probe into the circumstances which led to the death of scores of applicants nationwide. “ The outcome of this probe was never known. Nigerians are probes-fatigue. Indeed the probe has not stopped this weekend’s industrial carnage. This certainly should not be another opportunity for probe-panel beating. The letter also requested that the President must take preventive actions to prevent shameless exhibition of incompetence and non-service delivery by some of his ministers. “The Honourable Minister of Interior must get to the bottom of the recent deaths, failing which he must resign from administering a Ministry increasingly notorious for employment scandals and employment tragedies. NLC further averred that “The nation has witnessed much of distortions in the labour market in recent time from casualization to employment rackets at the centre of which has been the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). We recall with pain how the former Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mrs. Rose Chinyere Uzoma, allegedly sold ’4,000 employment slots approved by the Federal Government to job applicants and allocated some to other government personalities. “A nation that is signatory to relevant ILO standards with respect to Decent Work should stop this serial tragedy.” According to the letter NLC is demanding an immediate compensation for the victims of the avoidable recruitment stampede by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and an assurance that avoidable deaths of scores of Nigerian job seekers which has characterized NIS recruitment exercise in the recent time must stop. Leadership.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 17:32:21 +0000
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