18 job seekers die in immigration recruitment exercise

18 job applicants died and many others sustained injuries on Saturday during a nationwide recruitment test conducted by the Nigeria Immigration Service. Millions of job seekers gathered at the Abuja National Stadium and other test venues across the country where they were tested in Logical Reasoning, English Language and Mathematics.

The case wasn’t different at the Women Day Secondary School, venue for the test in Minna, Niger State. Three out of the 11,000 job applicants lost their lives after security agencies fired tear-gas at a crowd of anxious applicants.

Meanwhile, stampedes that resulted in many deaths were witnessed in Gombe, Oyo and Rivers States as well as the FCT, where large crowds showed up for the recruitment exercise.

An applicant in Port Harcourt revealed to The Punch that “Not everybody took the examination because there was no space; there was no space for those with HND and O’level. There was space for those with B.Sc.”

The large turn out at the venues for the NIS recruitment test is further proof that the unemployment rate in Nigeria is still at an alarmingly high rate. Youths in the country must be adequately engaged to ensure that they contribute positively, and not otherwise, to the economy of Nigeria.