Many applicants for the recently published vacancies in government ministries by the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) are experiencing difficulties accessing the website created for the recruitment.
This has led some of them, who spoke to The Guardian yesterday, to conclude that the portal has crashed. They appealed to government to upgrade the website-www.fedcivilservicegov.ng.
The vacant positions were published in some national newspapers of September 19, 2016, which would close on October 30, 2016.An applicant, Abeke David told The Guardian that the website is a fraud. “To me, I think they are just trying to use this to fleece children of the poor. They only advertised for formality, I can tell you, it is the Nigerian style. I have been trying the website for one week and it is just not connecting.”
Atahiru Bolanle made the same claims. “For sure, there is a problem. If you want to log in, it will not even open. This is the only opportunity I have been waiting for and I don’t know why the portal is not working. I am begging those concerned to correct the situation, to enable us compete favourably.”
Also, Danladi Shehu told The Guardian, “This issue of employment into government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government always baffles me. Previously, candidates applied by filling in FCSC forms. My question is: Why has the commission changed the policy suddenly? I suspect that it is a ploy to deny the poor in getting the jobs.”
In response to the complaints, the Assistant Director, Media in the FCSC, Dr. Joel Oruche said that as at yesterday, the commission had received 150, 991 completed and submitted applications through the website.
“As at yesterday night, the traffic on the portal was 22. 939 million, the number of devices used was 1. 272 million as well. I think, the major obstacle is that the applicants find it difficult to access the portal because of the use of wrong devices, such as handsets.”
According to Oruche, the challenge is also as a result of heavy traffic, it has slowed down the website because of the rush of applicants.
He said: “Many of the applicants are also ignorant. FCSC has discarded the use of forms because some unscrupulous people used them to defraud innocent applicants. We are also committed to the anti-corruption stance of this administration. This new move will not only bring transparency into the exercise but will also make it very credible.”
Oruche added that apart from above reasons, the commission is of the opinion that in this age of technology, the commission should not be left behind. It has to join the global information technology train.
