Though it’s been a quietly trending issue, it, however, assumed a life of its own recently when some individuals took to social media throwing jabs at the authorities in Bonny LGA of Rivers State, accusing the various institutions of not doing anything to address the spate of job racketeering in the area.

Among the institutions upbraided were the Bonny Local Government Council, traditional institution, the employment management system comprising the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre, companies, community liaison officers, youth leaders of the chieftaincy houses, and the Bonny Youth Federation, among others.

They accused the authorities of not creating opportunities, of hoarding available opportunities, of demanding inducement before giving out job opportunities, and of selling job chances amongst others. Curiously, evidence was scarce as to what extent these institutions were complicit in the listed allegations.

This is against the backdrop of the current local government administration being instrumental to ensuring strict adherence to due process in managing job opportunities emanating from the various worksites in Bonny Island. Verifiable records at the disposal of Kristina Reports puts the number of employments under the current government at over 4,000.  

As the clamour heightened, some concerned individuals challenged the accusers to make available verifiable evidence for the relevant authorities to work with in tracking these alluded infractions but these were not forthcoming. This became a challenge to the government, police, traditional institutions and others who were willing to pursue these allegations conclusively.

Not as if the various institutions are denying the existence of job racketeering as even recently, a certain government official carried out a stint operation that led to the sack of a former chairman of the BIRC. The story goes that the official visited the racketeer’s office in Port Harcourt disguised as a job seeker. Forms were provided which the person filled out and a bank account number was provided into the person made payment, precisely N400,000 for two slots. When the alert dropped all hell was let loose. The issue got the King and he promptly ordered the sack of the said chairman.  

But the authorities, kind of, assert that the current management team at the BIRC is inure to corruption given the stringent overwatch on their activities by the government and traditional institution both covertly and overtly. Also, the mandate given them by the King of Bonny was clear, “go and clean up that place”. More reason all stakeholders are unanimous in demanding evidence of any shady deals.

It can be understood why the interest by all and sundry in this job racketeering fiasco given the high premium incumbent on employment as a means of livelihood, economic indicator, tool for social cohesion, and measurement of fulfilment.

This spurred checks by Kristina Reports, albeit clandestine. The virtual medium got on the road and into town to check out the allegations and the findings are quite intriguing. There are different shades and layers of the problem running deep into the fabric of Bonny society.

On the side of the complainants, there are the uneducated, unskilled, and unambitious who have no educational qualifications and no technical skills. These are unemployed and unemployable but yet at the forefront of the bickering. They are not masons, steel fixers, rope access technicians, welders, fumigators, security guards, first aiders, or caterers, etc.

A second category have their situation worsened by their lack of ambition as they never visit the BIRC office or apply for any job, peradventure, anything could be done for them. These just sit at home and complain to whoever cares to listen about how there are no jobs for indigenes.

Then there are the graduates who lack the post-graduation experience to fit into anywhere and also lack the hands-on skills needed at work sites, especially, construction sites as obtainable in Bonny Island. Some of these would rather not succumb to learning these skills even when the training is sponsored by the government, traditional institution, non-governmental organizations, or well-meaning individuals.

There is also the skilled with soft life mentality who are skilled and certified in different professions but would rather not subject themselves to the stress of a construction worksite. They present themselves as qualified, secure the jobs then sell it to the highest bidder either as outright sale or lease whereas they get a percentage of the salary at the end of every month.

We also met the family and friend promoters who flock at the BIRC office daily seeking job opportunities only that it is not for themselves but for their siblings, friends or associates. These have given the BIRC officials no small cause for concern as their mode of operation undercuts the efforts to get everyone off the unemployment spectrum. A lady was balloted recently, only for a different person to turn up for medicals when the submitted contact was called, she answered saying that was her sister and that in her family she is the one that goes out to find opportunities for her siblings.

Then we met the allegation vendors. Years back, there was an allegation by a young man claiming he was sacked just because he is from Bonny. Kristina Reports confronted the company only to be inundated with evidence that he assaulted his supervisor at the worksite and was sacked in line with extant labour conventions.

Another case was a lady who claimed she was sexually harassed only for Kristina Reports to discover that she had a second job at RA Clinic. Project Manager of Pivot GIS came around and site nurse was nowhere to be found. After investigations revealed the true situation of things, the lady was sacked only for her to go to town with the comic allegation. This category also exists and also part of the show.   

We now come to the job opportunities merchants or you may choose to call them job racketeers or middlemen linking perpetrators to their victims. These have different cartels.

There are the ones who interface with the BIRC demanding for slots or get direct from the companies as per their position in Bonny Kingdom or political party or government. When they get the slots, they deploy their ‘boys’ who go looking for buyers. They engage the buyers, negotiate the exchange rate and link up with their bosses. Where the buyer cum job seeker does not have the money to pay, then steps in the loan sharks who provide the funds at exorbitant interest rates, sometimes as high as 50%.

For females, almost always they asked to make themselves available for sex in exchange for the jobs. The ladies decide whether to offer their bodies or stay unemployed. Many a time, the sex episodes continue until they are shoved aside or given the jobs. For some of the women they lose their dignity and still not have the jobs. For those who get the jobs, they have to continue submitting their bodies or be sacked at the slightest opportunity.

Then the ‘insiders’ comprising monitoring committee members, company staff, community liaison officers, union officials, and several others in the supply chain, who now arrange for induction, medicals, and other stuff. When the process is complete, they sit back and share the loot as per agreed percentages.  

Most times, when these hapless individuals start the job, they are oblivious of the fact that after three to four months they will drop them and get other ‘buyers’ to replace them. When the time comes, excuses for dropping them could range from “the contract has ended” to “NLNG said this or that” or “kingdom is not happy with the person who brought you”.

The errand boys are usually compensated with standby positions wherein they do not go to site to work but are paid every month same salary with those working. Some have people the cartel convinces they are helping by getting the job, but their payments have to be split with the job owners and there are several of them.

The cartel is so vast that it becomes a bit difficult identifying who is playing what role. Even staff of the local government are subtly roped into the process by inducing them to process and issue certificate of origin to people they don’t know or seen before. When people accuse these hapless staff of complicity, it is lost on them that these civil servants belong to families and chieftaincy houses and notable members of their families can coerce or coax them into carrying out acts that they are oblivious of the consequences.

It is also important to acknowledge the phenomenon of the “unseen hands” driving the system. These individuals stay in the shadows and watch the process and reward or punish those who interfere with the process positively or negatively, respectively. Within the political class, titled citizens, social circle and the elite, there is need to beam the searchlight and look closely at where the instructions to do certain things are coming from.

A source inside the BIRC, hinted Kristina Reports that due to the embarrassing level the debacle has gotten to, they are running an audit system that tracks job slots given to notable individuals to ascertain the destination of such slots. Also, a database capturing all requisitions, recommendations, allotments, inductees, and so on needs to be developed to keep an ongoing track of the employment process in being considered.

To many a stakeholder, it is time to mount close circuit television cameras (CCTV) at the BIRC office to capture the balloting system, the allocation of job slots, profiling for medicals and induction, and other activities to help track the processes. If possible biometrics should be introduced so that those sorted won’t shortchange those yet to be sorted. It is also time to infuse sanctions into the process; those who undermine the process should either be blacklisted.

Lastly, the job racketeering gang setting up offices in different areas in Port Harcourt needs to be called in. One of such has been identified to be located at St. John’s Bus Stop along Iwofe Road. The operator of that one is said to be going about with security details comprising the Police and DSS. This particular individual has several WhatsApp groups for different sets of his victims and convinces them that he has jobs for them in Train 7.

It is time to curtail these infractions by going after the criminal elements perpetrating these crimes against the people. NLNG promised about 12,000 jobs on Train 7 and yet Bonny people both indigenes and residents are yet to access up to 5,000 opportunities. The population of unemployed residents is on the rise daily and could implode any day should the situation persist. The trend is a potential security crisis waiting to happen and all stakeholders need to step in to contain this before it gets out of hand.