18th September, 2012
In the last 10 days, at least 10,000 job seekers have besieged the Lagos State Government Secretariat, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria for the few vacant positions advertised by the government in the state civil service.
The number may hit 15,000 before the close of submission of application this Friday.
It was gathered that government may not employ up to 100 job seekers to fill the few vacant positions advertised, yet the number of application speaks volume of the high rate of unemployment in the country.
The number of people submitting their Curriculum Vitae, CV, on daily basis since some positions were declared vacant by the government on 6 September, 2012 has been increasing, as thousands report on daily basis to submit their CVs.
Applicants besiege the Civil Service Commission, CSC, to submit their application between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm. The place is busy throughout the day while officers collecting the applications struggle to cope with the large number of applicants.
Permanent Secretary, CSC, Mrs. Eniola Yonwuren, said an average of 1,000 applicants submit their resumes on daily basis.
In the first few days, no staff could gain entrance into the CSC, as thousands of job seekers blocked the entrance in the bid to submit their applications.
As a result of the rowdiness, applicants were asked to file out in queues before their applications could be collected and the queues were very long.
A top government functionary, who craved anonymity, told P.M.NEWS that government would only employ a few individuals and that he was surprised to see thousands turning up daily to submit their applications even when government had not declared the whole positions vacant at Alausa.
Positions advertised are librarians, historians, instructors in technical fields, photographic assistant, auditors, film production assistants, dubbing theatre projectionist and principal executive officers.
According to Yonwuren, “we will sort out the entries and the eligible ones will be short-listed; thereafter, they will be expected to sit for a written examination. On the average, we receive about 1,000 application forms in a day.”
She stated that the exact time for the employment is subject to the decision of the State Governor and members of the Executive Council, adding that the commission’s job is to conduct examination and short list the eligible candidates.
One of the applicants, Oresegun Fatai, a Higher National Diploma graduate from the Lagos State Polytechnic, who studied Accountancy, told P.M.NEWS that he was ready to face the challenge of having to write an examination to determine who to be selected among the thousands of applicants.
He decried the bad government policy in the country, which he said did not encourage entrepreneurship, saying that he had no choice than to seek for employment to make ends meet.
Another applicant, Mr. Mosaku Israel, stated that he acted on a friend’s advice to apply for the job.“I learnt from the application form that there is going to be a written test and then an oral interview.
“Well, I am prepared and I am sure I will do well. I do not believe in lobbying or trying to get somebody to manipulate things for me. I know Lagos State takes transparency seriously in all that they do. I will try my best and leave the rest to God,” he said.
Also, Segun Fadaisi said he was ready to seek for employment despite the thousands of people who had applied, while Mr. Bolaji Samuel said he applied for a job in the state’s civil service in the hope of getting something better than his present marketing job.
“At present, I work as a marketer but I must confess it is not better than a menial job as it is strenuous and hardly gives me any reward or satisfaction.
“When I saw the job advertisements of the state government in the newspaper recently, I decided to apply immediately because I believe that the salary of a civil servant is better than what is obtained in the private sector,” he said.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga