NAF shortlisted 6500 for 2000 recruits intake

The Director of Recruitment, Resettlement and Reserve, Headquarters of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Air Vice Marshal Gali Abdul-Wahab has said only 2000 out of 6500 shortlisted candidates will be recruited in the ongoing recruitment exercise.

He said that some candidates knew they are not qualified but still apply to the service and “they chock the time for more qualified candidates from their local governments.”

Air Vice Marshals disclosed this while commenting on the number of applicants.
He said, ” Many candidates brings credentials they cannot defend, you will see a candidate with chains of credit, yet basic arithmetic is a problem, some you may be surprised to know, cannot read a newspaper.”

According to him, “6,500 applicants have been shortlisted out of which the service is willing to recruit 2000. The reason for the number is because over the year we saw there is an attrition, he explained.

“The difference between getting individuals and those that are going to scale through is almost at the ration of 3 to 1, that means out of three, only one scales through and that is why we decided to get 6000 so that we arrive at that number of 2000.”

He said the criteria for enlisting into the Service is that the applicant must be a Nigerian, must be within the age of 19years to 28years depending on what the applicant is applying for and have a minimum qualification of credit in mathematics and English language.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Air Force Hon. Golu Simon has expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the recruitment exercise.

Simon gave his nod during an oversight visit to supervise the recruitment amidst criticism and the alarm raised by a Non -governmental organization “Camppaign Against Military Impunity”, that the recruitment is enmashed in scandal..

The organisation had alleged that the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, compromised standards in the recruitment exercise for non-commissioned officers in favour of the core North.

The Executive Director of (CAMI), Victor Coker, told journalists in Abuja that presently at the Airforce Base in Kaduna, there is an ongoing pre-training formalities and tests for successful recruits, where 80 per cent of them are Northerners, “.

Coker therefore urged the government to carry out an audit of the recruitment exercises of the last three batches of those in training.

According to him, “they were supposed to take 68 persons in each state; but after the normal recruitment, the Chief of Air Staff now brought over 2,000 names spread across the core Northern States. Out of this figure, only 30/40 was given to the South.”

But the Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya denied the allegation and described it as false.

He said that the exercise is still on and that list of sucessful candidates will be published in the dailies for the public to ascertain,” If there is any state that is not fairly represented, then, let them raise the alarm, rather than be speculating.”

A list is not yet out, yet people are speculating that the North has been favoured, he quried.

“Don’t forget that each state should be fairly represented. If you have certified people and everybody in a state are not medically qualified, are you going to disregard everybody in that state? We operate with the highest standards and we do not compromise on standard, either medical, physical or academic.”