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By Tracy Moses
Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has directed the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) to immediately conclude the ongoing upload of applicants’ information for the 2025 nationwide paramilitary recruitment exercise.
The minister’s directive follows mounting complaints from applicants who say they have been unable to track the progress of their submissions or determine their status weeks after completing various stages of the recruitment process.
The 2025 paramilitary recruitment exercise, announced earlier this year by the Ministry of Interior through the CDCFIB, is one of the largest federal employment drives in recent years. It aims to fill critical manpower gaps within the country’s internal security and emergency response systems.
Tunji-Ojo, who has championed several digital transformation initiatives within the ministry, had earlier pledged to make recruitment into paramilitary agencies more transparent and merit-based.
In a post on his official Facebook page on Friday, the minister acknowledged the technical hitches frustrating many applicants, attributing the delays to the ongoing upload of large volumes of data.
He stated, “Following recent complaints from applicants into the paramilitary agencies who are still unable to determine their fate due to the ongoing upload of information, I have directed the Secretary of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board to ensure that all uploads are completed immediately.”
The CDCFIB had earlier announced that applicants could begin checking their recruitment status from Friday. However, many users reported encountering errors and glitches when attempting to log in.
Some applicants said the recruitment portal failed to load after entering their credentials, while others complained that their dashboards displayed job categories different from those they had originally applied for.
One applicant wrote, “I applied for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), but my guarantor’s form is showing Fire Service. My dashboard, however, still reflects my NIS application for ASI II (General Duties). Is this a system error?”
Others also shared screenshots of their dashboards on social media, alleging discrepancies and incomplete data uploads. Some users accused government officials and politicians of manipulating the recruitment slots.
“Many of the top officials and politicians have already shared the slots among themselves,” one post read.
Reports indicate that about 1.9 million Nigerians applied for roughly 30,000 available positions across the four paramilitary agencies, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Fire Service (FFS), and Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
The massive number of applicants, coupled with technical challenges, has reportedly slowed the verification and upload process.