It was tragedy in many states in the country penultunate
Saturday as 19 job seekers who participated in the Nigeria Immigration Recruitment exercise died in the stampede that ensued at overcrowded venues of the exercise.
Following the unfortunate incident, the Nigeria Labour Congress, youths and some prominent Nigerians have called for the sack of the Minister of Interior, Comrade Abba Moro and the Comptroller General of Immigration, David Paradang despite President Goodluck Jonathan’s compensation for families of the deceased  applicants and the hospitalised victims.
Our Chief Correspondent, Calista Ezeaku and photographer, Dele Obinna, sought the views of Port Harcourt residents on the burning issue: Hon. Samuel Yorkum (Insurance Consultant).
My advice is that people should be careful how they respond to any job advertisement especially this political era. Politicians are not reliable, especially when it comes to dealing with the public because they can do anything to get that position. I will advice job seekers to be careful. When they go for any job interview and see a very large crowd, they should withdraw  from the exercise.
The president has tried to compensate the families that lost their loved ones in that stampede although that cannot bring back life. We should give him kudos for doing that but then; the applicants are to be blamed for that tragedy. When you see a large crowd in any public gathering, you should watch and be careful because if you don’t get that job, another job opportunity will come out tomorrow. You should have trust in God in whatever you are doing. When your body tells you this thing is risky, you should withdraw. But people do” gree-die,” it’s either do or die, I must be employed.
If God will give you employment, you wouldn’t suffer for it.
I think the recruitment exercise should have been handled with better tactics.
However, nobody is perfect. So I don’t think the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and the Comptroller-General of Immigration should be sacked because of the unfortunate incident. If the incident happened because of their mistakes, any other person can make it tomorrow; does that mean people will be sacked, sacked and sacked?
So these people should not be punished but they should go back home and carry out thorough investigation on how to carry out hitch-free exercises in future.
Mr. Solomon Kalu  (Applicant)
I took part in the recruitment exercise here in Port Harcourt. I sustained an injury that day. The crowd there was unimaginable. This is because there are no job opportunities in this country. The youths are wasting. It is very painful after going to school, you come out there is no job. So what happened that day was a very sad experience; lives were lost, many people were injured. It is good that the President had decided to compensate the families of those that died in the stampede. It is very painful that after sending your children to school, after investing so much, you will lose them out of some people’s negligence of their duties. And I think that Saturday’s incident should be investigated and anybody found culpable should be punished appropriately. Abba Moro and Paragang should not necessarily be sacked. There should be laid down procedures on how to conduct similar exercise in future. People that have degree, HND, OND, FSLC, WAEC certificates should have been taken to different venues instead of squeezing everybody in one place. The crowd was more than the capacity of the stadium. All the seats were occupied and people were asked to sit on the grass and write exams. Things are not done that way. There should be procedures of doing things. They should give us back the N1,000.00 we paid. I even borrowed that money and I had to pay transport fare to the bank to pay it. It is so painful that they had to extort money from jobless people. It’s very unfair.
Mr. Moses Freeman (Consultant)
The stampede is a wrong signal for the nation. It shows that leaders in Nigeria have no plans for the youths. If we are saying that youths are leaders of tomorrow, there should be a transition plan. What we are seeing today is a situation where those in authority refuse to plan. Ordinarily, in the 21st century, we are in, there is nothing wrong in this computer age to organise a test through computer arrangement. Majority of graduates today are exposed to computer, so why gathering them in a stadium, an open place to write exam. It is very wrong. I condemn it. And that is why I am equally in support o those agitating that the Comptroller General of Immigration, Paradang and the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro should be removed from their offices for lack of planning. In planning and management, you put into consideration how you get things done without much problems. This is not the first time such unfortunate incident is happening. This is the second time. So it should be discouraged. And if they are removed that will create opportunity for Nigerians to know that the leadership of Jonathan is responsive to the problems of the youths in the country.
The compensation given by Mr. President is as a result of the laxity of those in government. It is very wrong. Is it because somebody is dead in a family that you can now give employment to them? It is only a useless father who refuses to plan for the children. There is no transition plan in this country and that is the problem we have. Many people within the corridors of power today were in government from the age of twenty. Some of them refuse to allow the youths of today to have a place in government and that is the problem. The youths of today feel they are not stakeholders in this present democracy.
There should be a revolution. Not the type that will take gun or anything. It is a resolution that square pegs in round holes should be removed. Those who lack understanding of strategic planning and management of things around the country should be removed. So the youths of this country should now know that they have no stake in this country. They should sit up, plan and seek a way forward for themselves through a revolution of organised minds. The problem within the youths again is ignorance. They don’t even know their left from their right. If not, they were supposed to even reject in the first place, coming to write an examination in an open place in this modern world.
And I want to add that the money collected from the applicants should be refunded for purposes of transparency. And if possible, government should pay them more for suffering them. The emotional trauma they passed through is enough reason for government to pay. There is enough money in this country to go round. If somebody can spend N10 billion to maintain a chartered plane, a minister in this country, that N10 billion is enough for all those that participated in that exercise for suffering them as a nation.

Gloria Princewill (Business woman)
It’s very sad after investing on a child to have him die in such way. The government is supposed to provide jobs for the youths instead of asking all applicants to come to one particular venue for recruitment exercise only for them to have this kind of problem. It’s a sad thing. Even if the persons responsible for the unfortunate incident are sacked, the people that died have died. It’s for us to put our heads together to think of a better plan on how to tackle unemployment in the country. They should also think of better ways to organise this type of programme in future. Government should empower the youth through skill acquisition and others.
They don’t need to wait until tragedy like this happens before giving people job. Is it only when people died in circumstances like this that they wake up from their slumber? These are things they are supposed to have done before now. The ministers and what have you are just there to keep themselves good. They don’t think about the poor people. They should sit down and think of what to do because every year people are coming out from school, what are they going to do? They are just employing the people they know. Man know man is just too much in this Nigeria. That is what is killing us. You cannot find their children in that kind of place.

Mr. Jaja Gift (Civil Servant)
The way the recruitment exercise was conducted was not supposed to be. I agree that a lot of people blame the government and all that. Be that as it may be, you see, we have to be very clear about the issue. Corruption is the basic of our struggle today in Nigeria. I’m surprised that a parastatal like the Nigeria Immigration Service would conduct such an interview in a open place. This is my first time of experiencing such situation. I have been in this state when Air Force and other parastatals were conducting similar recruitment exercise. There were days for school Certificate, OND, HND, Degree holders. And when you know that your certificate falls on so, so so, day, you go. I have not seen a situation where you gather thousands of persons in one place for a test. It is surprising. I don’t even understand what is going on.
We talk about corruption. I think it is now the government has to sit up to look into the issue because I see no reason why N1,000 should be collected from each applicant, for what? I don’t understand what it means.
The president has tried by compensating the families of the dead and the hospitalised victims but it is not enough. Must somebody die before you know the situation on ground? Must somebody die before you know that this person needed this? Look at poverty all over the country and few individuals are somewhere sucking even the poor masses who have nothing doing. If it was all well in Nigeria, would we have such crowd for just an interview? And how many persons do they want?
The Minister of Interior and the Comptroller-General of Immigration should be punished. If sack is the appropriate punishment, fine. The government knows what to do to them. Government should go into details and find out why a government form should be sold to a job seeker who borrowed money to come for an interview. It is not only Moro and Paradang that should be punished. All the key officers in Immigration should be called to order and punished. They should all be brought to book. All the people that benefitted from the exploit should be brought to book.