Employment Scam: How We Stopped Top Govt Officials From Hijacking NSCDC Recruitment– Aregbesola

As the country grapples with recruitment scams, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has revealed how the ministry stopped some high profiled government officials from influencing the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps recruitment.

Aregbesola said in the course of managing 1.5 million applicants for 5,000 NSCDC Jobs, the ministry was faced with pressures from people who were promised jobs by top government officials.

“The recruitment process into the NSCDC was long and tortuous, though it is also a novelty. So, we expect a lot of pressure. Some of the pressures are understandable,” Aregbesola said in a statement on Thursday.

The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, said Indiscriminate recruitment had doubled wage bill between 2015 and 2022 from N1.832tn in 2015 to N3.494trn in 2022.

The minister said of the 1.5 million applications received for the 5,000 NSCDC job, 750,000 met the requirements on age and height and were asked to upload their certificates.

He narrated that 217,000 applicants uploaded their certificates of which 113,000 were shortlisted to write the CBT. He said, only 53,116 sat for the test where 5,000 candidates emerged successful.

Aregbesola revealed that during the process, “A woman came with her son after getting very high up people to influence his appointment. But we discovered that the son was far, far below the required height of 1.7 metres.

“Some applicants on wheelchairs also came, demanding for the statutory five per cent allocation for special people.

“We politely explained to them that the job is paramilitary, requiring strenuous physical exercise for which they are not eligible, given their physical condition.”

According to him, part of the strategies adopted to curb the corrupt practices was to set aside manual mode of conducting tests and employing the service of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board.

He said, “In recruiting into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the board decided to advertise in the media to bring the information to the awareness of as many people as possible.

“This rules out secret recruitment. We also put away the manual mode of conducting tests to computer based tests that can be done in any location, eliminating the need to have a mass crowd together in one place. We hired a reputable examination body, the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the aptitude test.

“In addition, we included the National Identity Number (NIN) to authenticate the identities and bio data of applicants and eliminate fraud and possible impersonation. We also engaged the Federal Character Commission at all stages of the recruitment exercise. All these were done through a dedicated website,” the minister revealed.