Applicants hoping to be employed by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have lamented delays in the recruitment process that has lingered for almost four months.
Recall that the NCS had announced plans to recruit 3,200 officers into the service by opening a recruitment portal in April, the service had stated that 800 people would be recruited to fill vacancies in the Support Staff for Superintendent Cadre Category, and 2,400 would fill that of Customs Inspector and Customs Assistant Cadre in the General Duty Categories.
Some of the applicants who spoke with Shipping Position Daily said they no longer trust the recruitment process as they believe Government officials might have hijacked the process.
One of them; Mr. Iwegim Samuel said “Of course, I applied, when I heard about it, initially I didn’t want to fill the form, but because I was compelled by my elder brother, I decided to fill it, but just like the usual thing in Nigeria, you will only hear about the recruitment process, but will never hear anything about the employment, it has taken close to four month now, we did not hear about it, I can only pray that one day we will get it right in Nigeria, without showing favouritisms or nepotism,” he said.
Another job seeker who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said “I cannot lie to you the NCS recruitment process is the fourth Federal Government job I have applied for in the last seven months, we only apply, but never get to know how the selection is being done, in fact for this Customs recruitment I spent close to N80, 000 due to the recruitment demands.
“They asked for medical report ,I had to go and urgently do the medical report, which cost me N25, 000, the receipt is still with me at home. I also paid for my degree certificate N30, 000 because what I had then was statement of result. I also have to pay for National Identity card because I needed it urgently to complete the form that was about N4000, aside the cost of transport of going to and fro.
“Hoping that due process will be followed, only for us to wait the first month, second month and third month without hearing anything, and this is painful because when you look at the stress and the money spent, it will only make you weep for our country, that is the future of the youth whose father is not a Governor, a senator or Controller General. Our hope only lies in God that one day the right thing will be done”, he said.
Another applicant; Adepoju Raheem also said “what we heard about the recruitment process was that there won’t be human interference, but hearing that the customs are engaging some consultants again is sickening, because now that they are talking about consultant, are consultant not humans, so you want to tell me that the Areas Controllers won’t have slots apart from other politicians list and they only want to recruit 800 BSC holders. We can only hope that they don’t have the list of their anointed candidates, even before they open the recruitment process” he said.
But, when contacted, the National Public Relation Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service; Mr Joseph Attah, he said that the Service will soon complete the screening process and in no time job seekers who meet the requirement will be shortlisted for interview.
Reacting to the alleged engagement of consultants, he said: “I am tired of talking about this consultant, which consultant? Customs have always have technical partners don't we? So which one is consultant again? As soon as we finish we will inform those who met with the required demands”, he said.
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