As They Continue Screening, We Are Screaming! (OPINION) By Isaac Asabor

In the corporate world, job applicants are compulsorily taken through the journey of pre-screening. For the sake of clarity, “A pre-screening interview is a quick glance at the basic qualifications that a candidate may have. A brief rundown of the resume and some quick-fire questions about basic requirements will determine whether the employer wants to move forward with a formal interview process.

“The reason that many employers are utilizing this method instead of going right to in-person interviews (or video interviews) is to make large applicant pool less cumbersome. This allows hiring managers to find candidates that will best suit the particular position based on a quick assessment of key knowledge areas. Pre-screening applicants also helps hiring managers to give more of the interview process time to top candidates.

There are two main ways most pre-screening interviews are done: as phone interviews or by video chat. These generally do not exceed 30 minutes and at the end, qualified candidates will be informed if there will be a formal interview and how to set that up.

However, in politics, it is a different ball game as the screening and appointments of ministers in Nigeria do not follow the process usually followed in the corporate world.

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is laughable to say that since the screening exercise of twenty eight nominees began that not a few homes that have colored-Television now gather to watch the legislative exercise as it is beamed live for public view. Also, in offices, particularly across newsrooms. The same screaming reaction is also been exhibited by not a few Journalists who are of the view that the screening is not been thoroughly done.

At this juncture, it is not unlikely that a curious reader of this piece may have been worried about why some Nigerians scream amidst the screening of ministerial nominees. The reason why people screamed cannot be farfetched as the screening sessions have been characterized with histrionic incidents.

For instance, since the commencement of the screening exercise, it is crystal clear that not a few theatrical scenes were seemingly branded with occurrences where some nominees were somewhat shoddily screened, with others drilled for some minutes after being asked questions relating to diverse sectors of the economy, issue of date of birth, among others, and confirmed by merely saying, “Take a bow and go”.

In one of the dramatic instances that made this writer and his professional colleagues screamed was when the lawmakers grilled a ministerial nominee from Benue State, Joseph Utsev, citing “discrepancies” in his biodata.

Utsev, who came on stage immediately after the Senate screened ex-governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike told the lawmakers that he was born in Gboko, Benue State on December 2, 1980 and that he attended the University of Agriculture, Makurdi where he studied Civil Engineering and graduated with a Second Class Upper in 2004.

Utsev said he observed the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Kaduna in 2006.

Utsev, who is a professor of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering said he bagged his Master’s Degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 2007 and further bagged a doctorate degree from same university in 2011.

However, Senator Tokunbo Abiru from Lagos East Senatorial District asked Utsev to clarify his biodata.

“You were born on December 2, 1980 but reading further down, you attended St John Primary School, Gboko, in 1989,” Abiru said. “I am wondering whether you finished secondary school in 1989 which suggest that you started primary school at the age of three to finish in 1989.”

“You also claim that you went to secondary school in 1995,” Abiru continued, adding that “what appeared a bit distorted” is that “you graduated in 2004 meaning that you probably would have spent nine years for your first degree”.

Abiru said, “I just need you to clarify those data starting from primary school, while it took you that long to get your first degree despite the academic brilliance you have exhibited.”

The nominee responded that he started primary school in the year 1984 and got his first school leaving certificate in 1989.

“I furthered to secondary school to 1990 to 1995, that was when I got my SSCE (Senior School Certificate Examination),” Utsev explained.

“I was actually supposed to pass out in 2003 but there was a prolonged strike by ASUU, I spent six years in the programme and that was why I graduated in 2004,” the nominee added.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio interjected and said the nominee probably finished nursery school at the age of three to start primary school at the same age.

“The question was you were born in 1980 and you had your first leaving certificate in 1989, that means that the period you should have been in nursery school at the age of four years, you were already in Primary one,” Akpabio said and the lawmakers had a good laugh.

Akpabio said the nominee was “exceptionally brilliant” and was three years when he started his primary education. “It’s possible that the nominee was a classmate of Senator Abba Moro”.

Taking the floor of the Senate, Moro, from Benue South Senatorial District, urged his colleagues to give the nominee the benefit of the doubt.

Akpabio thereafter said the discrepancy in Utsev’s biodata must have been a typo error.

However, a member from Benue North-West Senatorial District, Titus Zam Tartenger, raised Order 42 on personal explanation, saying that there is no discrepancy in the biodata of the professor.

Senator representing Adamawa North Senatorial District, Ishaku Abbo, said there was no discrepancy in Utsev’s biodata.

Abbo shared a “personal story” of how he sat for common entrance examination in Primary 3 and passed because he was “exceptionally brilliant”.

At exactly 02:53pm, Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, in Akpabio’s temporary absence, asked Utsev to “bow and go and if there is anything we will get back to you”.

In a similar over-the-top situation, a female ministerial nominee wept during senate screening, even as she whipped up sentiment by saying that she comes from poor family. The nominee, from Katsina, Hannatu Musawa, says her father sold kolanut to send her to school. She could not control her emotions on Tuesday when she broke down in tears while appearing before the Senate for screening.

Musawa, who is currently the presidential adviser on culture and entertainment economy was the ninth nominee screened by the upper chamber on Tuesday.

When she was asked to introduce herself and summarize her resume by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Ms. Musawa began to speak about her family background and her upbringing but, at some point, betrayed her emotion and started shedding tears.

As at July 31, nine, out of the 14 nominees that were screened, were asked to take a bow and go, without subjecting them to questions. The foregoing dramatic situations, no doubt, were the reasons why not a few Nigerians are screaming, and the seeming partisan and incongruous process of selecting leaders influenced the coinage of the headline of this piece, “As They Continue Screening, We Are Screaming!”