Open Letter To President Jonathan By A Concerned Immigration Officer.

THIS IS A MUST READ SENT INTO MY INBOX....

The President,

Federal Republic of Nigeria

Aso Rock

Abuja.

CC:

Senate President

Committee on Interior

Head of Service

Sir,

SAVE OUR SOULS-"RE: SUPERVISION OF NIGERIAN IMMIGRATION SERVICE BY COMRADE PATRICK ABBA MORO-MINISTER OF INTERIOR"

        It is with a heavy and troubled heart that we have taken the decision to write this piece and with every due respect to your office with the believe that we shall get a fair hearing also. This writing would not have been necessary if the minister of interior-Abba Moro discharging his duties without fear  or favour, or not contravening the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria, the provisions of the federal character commission and the workings of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board.

 We are deeply concerned too that the actions and inactions of the Minister has made the Nigeria Immigration Service a laughing stock in the committee of M.D.A(s) thereby causing physical, psychological and mental tortures that has produced premature deaths, depression and near suicide.Perhaps, it may result in a worst scenario of "serious conflicts" within the agency.  

                              

       His actions/inactions pertaining to his style of supervision at a glance and in depth are at variance with what should be normal in the Public Service and bothers mainly on: RECRUITEMENT, POSTINGS, PROMOTION and a few other areas where under his watch things have gone awry, right now, officers and men of the Nigeria Immigration Service are at lost, wondering whether it was a crime to join the service and serve their fatherland-NIGERIA.

       RECRUITMENTS: Reference to the guidelines for appointment, promotion discipline and general purposes-Revised edition issued by the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board in July-2013, recruitment is to be segmented and be flexible that is the board is to delegate the recruitment of officers of CONPASS 03-07 to the services with the necessary guidelines while the board handles recruitment for officers from CONPASS 08-16. 

This has not and never happens under Moro's watch. Minister Moro runs a one man riot squad-recruits from his office, sends names of those he has hired to Immigration, then to the board-wickedly, labels it "replacements" Replacements of what? Were there officers who have been removed or that have resigned their appointments? How come the service does know .These recruits hardly meets the parameters/specification for appointment into a sensitive agency such as Immigration.

Aside from this, the compositions of those "recruited" are always lopsided with a greater percentage from his home-state of Benue. Others states are always short-changed of their quota no matter the situation.

         Secondly, the laws establishing the board made no provision for the use of ministerial aides as it is practised or the use of consultants as evident in the last recruitment exercise where scores lost their lives in the bungled process. We the officers were only informed about the recruitment four (4) days to the exercise and no provisions were made to conduct the exercise and more so, the N1,000 paid by applicants was not paid into any Immigration account or federal government account, the consultant was the beneficiary and what happens to the money, no one knows.

   Thirdly, positions that are to be filled should be determined by the CGIS-Comptroller General of Immigration Services and not outsiders. The consultant advertised for Assistant Superintendent Cadre, Assistant Inspector and Immigration Assistant 3, looking inward, we need more of Immigration Assistant 1, 2 and 3 than what was advertised and the requirements for each position mixed up.

        Lastly these recruits also known as "replacements" will just trickle to the various Immigration formations for documentations, partake in nominal orientation exercise and are left there "UNTRAINED" for even more than between 12-18 months committing all kinds of miscleamanors which we have never known all because Super Minister is their anchor.

       In all, if you don't know the Minister or any of his "cronies"- you cannot have a job in Immigration and the board is just a rubber-stamp and the service chiefs (CGIS) are not just figure heads but dumb watchdogs that are unable to bark.

POSTINGS: Moro, our Super Minister has descended so low and short of expectations of a public officer of his own calibre to meddle into the issue of postings, transfer or staff disposition he is always at war with whoever sits as the CGIS over where "HIS PEOPLE" are posted to perform duties. In Immigration,THE FEAR OF MINISTER (MORO) IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.

      In a situation where the Minister determined who becomes a PCO-(Passport Schedule Officer) over the choice of the Comptroller  General who would view suitability, performance and work knowledge is of great concern to us and nearly 75% of the postings comes from the Minister's office and its very nepotism in outlook.

     To cap it all, the Minister collects Estacode allowance and other travel expenses from the federal Government to "supervise passport issuance at our embassies"-popularly called "Intervention". What is the duty of the CGIS or DCGIS (passports) or any other person delegated to perform this assignment, Is the comptroller General not competent enough to deploy his officers wherever and whenever is necessary without the overbearing influence or hijacking of the daily administration of the service. A typical example is officers of Benue stock who occupy the following positions:

PASSPORT OFFICE-------------FESTAC

PASSPORT OFFICE-------------BENIN

PASSPORT OFFICE-------------BENUE

PASSPORT OFFICE-------------SOUTH AFRICA

COMPTROLLER-------------LAGOS COMAND

COMPTROLLER-------------OYO STATE COMAND

Just to mention but a few, without recourse to common sense and fairly play. Immigration commands are full of officers loyal to Super Moro who disobey directives and staff orders just because he is there to support them. From the list those from some state are marginalized. In state like Bayelsa, Ekiti, Ondo, Taraba there's no Comptroller, ACG and DCG, Akwa-Ibom has one comptroller no ACG and DCG.

  PROMOTIONS: Right from his assumption on duty was full of abnormalities e.g. promotions interviews carried out once and foot dragging in the release of the result. The FF are the observations his watch.

 1. No seniority observed at all, no date of last promotion, no state of origin. All these are to enable his favourites to be placed above successful officers who are due and performed creditably well in the exams.     

Differentials in the typographical characters in the promotion list. Some are small, capital and mixed.

List published/released is different from the one worked upon by the board, hence alot of missing names.

Inconsistence in the Promotions, collapse of seniority as every gets the same effective date.

Promotion of officers who are not due for promotion while weeding out those due.

None observation of federal character as his whom state is highly favoured (Idomas)

Officers spend between 7-12yrs before being promoted thereby promoting; indiscipline, breakdown of chain of command and espirit-de-corp, frustration, depression, death from heart attack-every promotions is followed by casualties e.g. Late Mr. Odili who died of heart attack after the release of promotion for 2012.

   Petition mailing has become the order of the day and officers jostle to catch the atheling of the board or people in Ministers good books or office with those connected to the later always having upper hands.

Then why was the so called board established?

What do the statutes say on Recoy welfare and Promotion?

What role is given to the Minister as regards to his supervising power, which category of officers can be employed at the state command by the service Headquarters, by the board?

Does the Minister have the power to remove the Secretary/Director of the board or obstruct/ delegate the secretary's duties to another person?

What does the civil service rule say as regards to appointment and recruitment of officer?

OTHER ISSUES

1. None release of funds to the service to operate smoothly.

2. Unnecessary bottle necks in the issuance of quota and other facilities to expatriates and to deserving origins. 

3. Delaying in granting of citizenship to applicants that have scaled through screening and processing thereby causing backlogs in the exercise and letting the applicants to lose faith in the whole process.

We should maintain what is right and do what is just for God's justice will soon come there's no justice in Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS). The injustice perpetuated by ABBA MORO PATRICK has sinned against Immigration families.

He silences the right of the afflicted officers and threats falls into contempt at will Abba does not have a conscience for consequences.

          I know Mr. President has a lot to do but we plead with him to use his good office to set up a panel to investigate what is happening in Immigration.           

Signed

Concerned Officers