WWW...What Went Wrong?

• Most of the NIS job applicants have been unemployed for an average of four years. 
• Applicants applied to be recruited into the NIS in October 2013 in response to vacancy notices published in national dailies.
• Application was done by completing an online form, and making monetary payments into NIS account numbers in various banks including UBA and Diamond Bank Ltd. 
• The transactions were duly acknowledged via pay4me electronic payment slips which indicated that the application fee was N850 and the transaction fee was N150 totaling N1000

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• Five months later, applicants were notified of a scheduled recruitment test via text messages only a day before. The text messages did not indicate the exam venues. A typical text message the applicants received reads as follows:

• “Exam into Nigeria Immigration service holds Saturday March 15^th 2014 at 7am in your preferred exam state. Contact your state command for more info”.

• On the day of the examination, all the cities in the federation witnessed unprecedented traffic jams, which made movement nearly impossible, causing excruciating pain to commuters and citizens. 
• At the various centers, NIS officers sold white polo t-shirts, white shorts and white canvas to applicants at N5,500 even though officials knew that these items would NEVER be required or used during the examination.
•  In Zaria, the center of the examination, Command Secondary School, Zaria could not contain the mammoth crowd of applicants who turned out for the examination which led to the use of the adjacent school, Federal Government College, Jos as an additional examination center. 
• Inside of the Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt stadia and other centres, NIS officials were visibly looking angry, frustrated and totally overwhelmed by the massive size of the applicants that turned out for the exercise.
• Despite seeing a crowd numbering more than tens of thousands waiting under the heat of the scorching sun for several hours, only one entrance gate leading into the Lagos stadium was opened to applicants which caused a massive rush and stampede. Several applicants had to jump over the stadium fence to gain entrance into the main bowl. This is similar to what happened in Port Harcourt and Abuja.
• NIS officers opened that entrance gate of the Lagos stadium at about 3.pm and that was when they started distributing the question papers. This was an examination slated for 8.00 a.m. 
• In Jos, the question papers came some few minutes to 5 O’clock in the evening and applicants were given just THIRTY minutes to answer them.
• ·        Distribution of question papers was carried out by throwing heaps of papers in the air for applicants to catch according to their physical and acrobatic might. 
• Some applicants purchased the question papers at various sums ranging from N500 – N2,000. 
• NIS instructed applicants to come to the exam venues with their acknowledgment slips which evidences the N1,000 payment transaction for the application forms. In Lagos, NIS officials destroyed this evidence by shredding these slips at the close of the examination. 
• At about 5pm, NIS officials told applicants that the Lagos examination has been cancelled, by 'orders from above'. This announcement forced angry applicants to begin a peaceful protest at the stadium ground. 
•  In the evening of the tragedy of 15^th March 2014, the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro appeared on national television, demonstrating no remorse for his gross negligence or showing empathy nor regret for the mistreatment suffered by these applicants, but decided rather callously  and in most annoying manner to blame the applicants, including those who died for what he called ‘’impatience’’ of the applicants/job seekers, for the shoddy examination preparations and stampede that resulted in injury and needless loss of lives in some other centers across the country.
  
  
  JUSTICE NOW!