800,000 Nigerian graduates scramble for 1,500 jobs

According to Daily Trust, about 800,000 graduates have submitted applications to the Independent National Electoral Commission seeking to be employed to fill only 1,500 available job slots in the commission.

INEC had placed vacancy advertisements in newspapers on 19 November, inviting applications for the positions of legal officers, system analysts, architects, engineers, estate officers and registration area officers on grade levels 07, 08 and 09.

Only applicants with first degrees, Higher National Diplomas and National Certificate of Education (NCE) were invited to submit applications, but an official at the commission disclosed to the newspaper that a number of PhD and master’s degree holders also applied.

The official said INEC was alarmed by the huge inflow of applications into its website, as well as the calibre of applicants, some of whom are clearly “over qualified” for the jobs they applied for. “In the first week alone, we had about 300,000 applications. We were alarmed,” the official said. “In fact there are PhD holders among the applicants; some of them have two master’s degrees. Na wa oh!