ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 16 people were killed in
stampedes for government jobs in Nigeria when hundreds of thousands were
invited to apply for fewer than 5,000 positions, officials and
activists said Sunday.
Interior Minister Abba Moro held the
applicants responsible, saying they "lost their lives through their
impatience." Activists blamed his ministry and called for him to be
fired. Emergency officials said the death toll could rise.
Nigerians
are desperate for work, with official statistics putting the number of
unemployed at nearly 41 million of the 170 million population.
Unemployment among young people aged under-24 is even higher — 38
percent according to official statistics and nearer 80 percent,
according to the World Bank.
Moro was quoted as saying by the
official News Agency of Nigeria that many of the applicants "jumped
through the fences of affected centers and did not conduct themselves in
an orderly manner … This caused stampedes and made the environment
unsecured."
The Education Rights Campaign blamed his ministry for
inviting more applicants than centers could accommodate and not
providing enough security. The campaign, which called for Moro to be
fired, gave the example of Abuja National Stadium, which has a capacity
for 60,000. It said 65,000 applicants were invited and seven people
died. The other deaths took place in Minna, Port Harcourt, Dutse and
Benin City, Moro said.
The campaign said scores of people were
killed. The Nigerian Red Cross and some hospital officials said many
seriously injured patients were admitted, and some could die, raising
the toll.
About 500,000 applicants were invited to apply for 4,556
vacancies at the Nigeria Immigration Service, according to Education
Rights.
Applicants said they each paid 1,000 naira (about $6) —
apparently for the right to write tests on Saturday at the application
centers. The Education Rights Campaign said it was scandalous that the
government had collected about $3 million from applicants and demanded
the money be returned.
It said it was unconscionable that the
government was "preying on the misery of hapless Nigerian youths,
especially graduates who suffer years without gainful employment."
Nigeria
is Africa’s biggest oil producer and has one of the world’s
fastest-growing economies —
7 percent projected for this year — but
corruption and mismanagement have failed to translate that growth into
much-needed jobs.
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Associated Press writer Michelle Faul contributed to this report from Lagos, Nigeria.
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