Parradang and Moro...should leave office and be prosecuted

Moro, NIS boss fought over immigration recruitment – Investigation

MARCH 21, 2014 BY FIDELIS SORIWEI AND ADELANI ADEPEGBA 

Parradang and Moro

Facts have emerged that a cold war between the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro and the Comptroller General of the Nigerian  Immigration Service, Mr. David Parradang, played a major role in the  NIS  recruitment  that resulted in the death of 20 job applicants on Saturday.

It was learnt on Wednesday in Abuja that both Moro and Parradang had been on each other’s throat over who should conduct the exercise.

Investigations revealed that while the minister insisted that it was the responsibility of the Ministry of Interior to handle the recruitment as the presiding ministry, the comptroller general  was of the view that the service should be allowed to handle the recruitment.

A source, who spoke to one of our correspondents on ‘the drama’ that preceded the immigration jobs tragedy, said the Immigration boss had argued that  those to be given jobs would work with the NIS as such the service could  not be left out.

It was learnt that at the height of the disagreement between Moro and Parradang, the ministry was said to have engaged a consultant, Drexet Tech Global, to conduct the exercise.

The leadership of the NIS was said to have been excluded from the processes that led to the engagement of the consultant.

Ministry officials, who should know about the consultant,   said that not much information was released on the deal.

“Look, nobody really knew anything about this consultant. All we were told was that it was one man or one woman. It didn’t go beyond that. Honestly, I really can’t tell,” a ministry source said in response to enquiries by The PUNCH.

It was learnt that while the minister delegated the NIS boss to ensure the smooth conduct of the ill-fated recruitment, Parradang in turn was said to have delegated  a deputy  comptroller to preside over the exercise in Abuja.

It was learnt that while over one million applicants besieged the centres across the country, both the minister and the NIS boss were in Jos felicitating with the Governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, who celebrated his 70th birthday in Jos on Saturday.

A source told one of our correspondents that Moro was taken aback when he saw Parradang at the venue of the governor’s birthday on the date of the exercise.

It was learnt that Parradang had reasoned that he had to be physically present at the event because Jang played a major role in his emergence as the CG of the NIS.

Efforts to get the NIS Public Relations Officer, Emeka Obua, failed as our correspondents could not reach him on his mobile phone.

But a source in the NIS confirmed that Parradang had advised the minister that the exercise should be conducted in batches, but Moro refused.

However, the Special Assistant to the minister on media, Mr. George Ubong, said that it was not true that the minister hijacked the exercise from the comptroller general.

Ubong said that the CGI, the Director of the Board and other stakeholders were part of the exercise.

He said that advertorials and radio jingles were placed in media houses after meetings were held and the date for the exercise was picked.

He said, “The minister never hijacked the exercise; I can tell you that the CGI, the Director of the Board and other stakeholders were part of the exercise.

“Meetings were held and there are minutes of the meeting, and there was an agreement as to what newspapers and radio houses to place advertorials and jingles. Also don’t forget that the CGI granted an interview after leaving the National Assembly to announce when the exercise was to hold.”

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 http://www.punchng.com/news/moro-nis-boss-fought-over-immigration-recruitment-investigation/

When will the drum beats of revolution start in Nigeria?

on March 24, 2014   /   in Broken Links 12:09 am  

ByOmoh Gabriel

When some of us were in secondary school, a grade one WAEC certificate will make you unacceptable for employment in a Nigerian bank and most companies in Nigeria. The thinking then was that with grade one, the holder will in a matter of one year gain admission into the university. There was no need to waste resources training him.

Those who got jobs easily in banks in those days were WAEC certificate holders of grade three. Also during the same period, a degree from any Nigerian university was a precious possession. Employers of labour in Nigeria questioned many of the certificates obtained by those who went abroad especially to the USA to study.

While at the University of Benin in the late 70s to early 80s, a lecturer who had his PhD from an American university was forced out of our class because he could not stand the demand for advanced macro-economics. She entered the class one fateful Monday and said; ‘You know all of us cannot be good in calculation.  Before she finished the sentence, the class rose in unison and asked her what she was doing there if she could not express her know-how in figures. That day, the class met with the HOD and she was removed from the class.

Twenty-five years down the line, the situation has changed dramatically and the reverse is the case. Banks are now asking for second class upper or first class degrees as minimum job entry requirement. They are also demanding that such graduates should not be older than 26 years. Now, Nigerian graduates are not even acceptable for employment in Nigeria. American degrees that were looked down upon 25 years ago are what most employers are now searching for.

It is not that there are no jobs in the country; it is the lack of the required skills that has prevented many Nigerians from accessing jobs. There are several banks and companies employing people with requisite skills from abroad. The question is; how did we come so low in value while others have improved so much? So much that jobs are now only available to relations of the dead?

What a tragedy! Each year, Nigerian leaders tout figures of economic growth of about six or seven per cent, but the level of unemployment keeps rising by the day. Perhaps, many have thought that the unemployment situation was exaggerated by media harp until Saturday when for 4,000 job openings in Nigeria Immigration Service, attracted over 60,000 applicants for a written test in Abuja alone.

Maybe the Minister of Internal Affairs wanted this government to see the magnitude of the unemployment issue in Nigeria, by allowing all the applicants to show up the same day for the test. Or how else can it be explained that any reasonable employer will gather that number in a stadium to write a test? Did the minister have any sense of crowd behaviour?

The unfortunate event brings to mind the 2012 lamentation of President Goodluck Jonathan. On that occasion, he had lamented the growing unemployment situation in the country stating that it may lead to some social unrest in the near future. Every Nigerian, in low or high places, knows this simple fact. This government has not shown to the people anything that will suggest that it is tackling unemployment. What Nigerians need to see is how far this administration has gone to tackle the problem. Since the days of the ill-fated Structural Adjustment Programme, or the Shehu Shagari Austerity Measures of 1982, unemployment has been a phenomenon that has refused to go away in Nigeria.

Unemployment in Nigeria has become one of the most critical problems the country is facing. Many years of corruption, mismanagement of the economy, civil war, military rule, etc., have hindered economic development of the country. Nigeria is endowed with diverse and infinite resources, both human and material. However, years of negligence and adverse policies have led to the under-utilisation of these resources. This is one of the primary causes of unemployment in the country.

Analysis of employment data shows that the rate of new entrants into the labour market has not been uniform. The rate was on the increase from 2007 to 2009 but declined significantly between 2009 and 2010. The rate increased again from 2010 to date. Within the period, there has been an average of about 1.8 million new entrants into the active labour market per year.

In 2011, Nigeria’s estimated population stood at 164.3 million, 92.3 million are said to be economically active, labour force – 67.25 million, employed – 51.18 million, unemployed – 16.07 million and newly employed – 2.13 million. 2010 statistics showed that about 10 million Nigerians were unemployed in Nigeria at March, 2009. The 2011 survey showed that the national unemployment rate is 23.9 per cent compared to 21.1 per cent in 2010 and 19.7 per cent in 2009.

The Federal Government since 2009 has been singing the tune of tackling unemployment but so far, there has been no serious sign of improvement. Today in Nigeria, almost half of 15-24 year olds living in urban areas are jobless, yet reducing unemployment and enhancing economic productivity are top priorities for the National Economic Management team.

It is sad that year in, year out, billions are budgeted for recurrent with little for capital expenditure that will lead to job creation. Fortunately, the buck stops at the President’s table. He is the one who has the key to unlock and unleash the nation’s economic potentials for the benefit of all Nigerians. The President has no one to cry to other than putting on a thinking cap and getting the job of the office of the President done creditably.

With what happened that Saturday, Nigeria is ripe for a change, a revolution. Who will cast the first stone for the drum of revolution to sound?

 http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/03/will-drum-beats-revolution-start-nigeria/

'brain gain'

Oil-rich Nigeria enjoys 'brain gain' as expats take advantage of boom

53 minutes ago

LAGOS, Nigeria — They speak in the clipped tones of the British upper class or the soft drawl of southern California. They boast degrees and work experience from elite overseas institutions. And now they're coming home.

Nigerians who left their homeland to seek riches abroad are increasingly returning as Africa's biggest oil producer rides an energy bonanza that is opening up unprecedented opportunities.

Abiola Lawal, 41, is part of this "brain gain."

He was earning a six-figure salary with business software giant SAP AG in southern California before he returned to Nigeria in 2005 after 17 years abroad, joining a major Nigerian energy firm, Oando PLC, as chief strategy officer.

"There are lots of 30-and 40-something-year-olds who are CEOs in this country, and that would never be in the States or the U.K. because the experience pool is much deeper there," said Lawal. "In the States I will have opportunities, but not at the level we are getting them in Nigeria, and that's the reality."

While most of Nigeria's 140 million citizens are deeply impoverished, some parts of the waterfront commercial capital of Lagos are becoming mini boomtowns.

With petro dollars strengthening the economy and the government deregulating key industries, Nigeria's telecommunications, banking and energy sectors are growing at double and sometimes triple digit rates, with stock prices to match. The overall economy is forecast to grow at about nine per cent in 2008.

This growth has created a growing appetite for internationally business savvy recruits. Many companies now organize career fairs in major cities in the U.S. and Europe, seeking to personally woo Africans with overseas training and work experience.

For many Nigerian expatriates, it's a tempting proposal: the chance to contribute to the development of their country while enjoying compensation packages that often include fast-track promotion, housing, a maid, a car and a driver.

No firm figures exist for how many Nigerians educated or working overseas are coming home. But recruitment companies report hundreds of applications for each job they advertise and up to 85 per cent of the applicants are Nigerians working in the West.

Shola Ajani, who runs recruitment company Maximise Potentials, says that in the last three years the company has placed 700 Nigerian expatriates in professional jobs in their homeland. Their portal, nigeriajobsonline.com, has a database of some 10,000 Nigerians living overseas who have registered their interest in repatriating, he says.

Nigeria has always seen some of its diaspora return home, a process kick-started by the end of three decades of military rule in the country in 1999. But brain gain "has taken a new dimension in the past year," as the economy booms, says Ade Odutola of another recruitment site wazobiajobs.com, which has grown nearly threefold in the past year. "We are seeing greater awareness of the opportunities in Africa by Africans in the diaspora."

Word is spreading fast. Internet communities such as the Move Back Club put new "repats" in touch with those hoping to make the move.

Recruitment companies say brain gain is running at the highest levels in Nigeria. But they say flagging western economies are pushing more young professionals toward other fast-growing, if sometimes volatile, markets such as South Africa and, more recently, Ghana.

The contrast between the often high-living ways of repats and other rich elite - such as politicians and oil tycoons - and the circumstances of ordinary Nigerians can be jarring.

Misuse of government funds and widespread corruption has left Nigeria's infrastructure crumbling. Few people have access to reliable electricity, decent schools and health clinics or flushing toilets.

In the few comparatively posh sections of Lagos, high-security gated compounds have sprung up, roads have been resurfaced and glistening shopping malls opened. The elite can be seen quaffing champagne and dining on sushi in air-conditioned restaurants while outside, beggars and street children guard their immaculate SUVs.

Nigeria's government isn't complaining. It has set up groups such as the "Nigerians in the Diaspora Organisation" to encourage Nigerians living and working overseas to come back and share their skills.

"These people are interested in staying and rebuilding their homeland, not just seizing the opportunity and then leaving back for overseas," says John Ejinaka, a senior consular official involved in the multimillion-dollar effort. "It's a great opportunity for all of us."

Erabor Okogun, a 34-year old business consultant, studied in Britain and held a job with Transport for London, the government body that runs London transport system. He returned to Nigeria in 2003 to work for the Transnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC - a vast conglomerate with interests across the hospitality, energy, telecommunications and trade sectors.

He said salaries are high in Nigeria, but that companies get what they pay for.

"Yes, we command above and beyond what is normally expected for employees in Nigeria," he said, swirling a glass of cognac. "But in terms of work output, ethics, ideas and concepts the company gets a lot of value. The economy gets a lot of value."

Of course, he said, there are drawbacks to moving back to a deeply corrupt country that receives only a couple of hours of state-provided power each day. Roads are filled with potholes and snarled with traffic. Rates of gun crime are high in the disorderly city.

"In the U.K. everything has its place, there's an order to things: That's what I miss most," says Okugun. "And that's what I want to create here."

For some Nigerian repats being able to watch, and participate in, the development of their nation is sufficient reward. But for most there's another message that trumps all: "You can write your name in gold in Nigeria," says Okogun with a smile.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ii1UZuDOlyHI0iMVH8GYA9OwVGnQ

NIGERIAN JOBS SCRAMBNLE KILLS 12

Jobs in any part of the civil service are prized

At least a dozen people have died during a recruitment drive for the Nigerian Immigration Service. Four people were killed in a stampede at the recruitment centre in Enugu in Nigeria's south-east. Recruiters closed a gate to the government building where candidates were to sit an aptitude test. More than 130,000 candidates applied for 1,260 jobs, local media report. Government jobs are prized for their regular salaries and good benefits. There are few good employment prospects for the many thousands of people who graduate from colleges and universities each year. Four people also died in Asaba, in the Niger Delta region, during a fitness test where candidates had to run miles in the hottest part of the day. Four people were also reported to have been crushed in an stampede in Ilorin in the central region of the country. Other people died during fitness tests in Kaduna in northern Nigeria and in Abia and Anambra in the east, but the exact number was unclear. Economic reforms over the last eight years have seen the civil service cut in size. The government is still the largest single employer in Nigeria, but a large number of Nigeria's 140m population rely on the informal economy for their living.