Nigerians seeking employment in the Federal Civil Service have expressed concern over the persistent malfunction of the Federal Government’s recruitment portal, which has made it difficult for many to apply for advertised positions.
The Federal Civil Service Commission had on January 27, 2025, announced the commencement of recruitment into over 70 positions across various ministries, departments, and agencies.
However, days after the announcement of the recruitment, many applicants were unable to access the website.
A series of checks by our correspondent from Monday through Saturday revealed that the portal was inaccessible, initially displaying an error message: “This site can’t be reached, Err_connection_refused,” before later showing “502 bad gateway.”
The malfunction has sparked widespread anger, with many Nigerians taking to social media to express their frustration over their inability to submit applications.
One of the applicants, Oyin Agboola, said all her efforts to submit her application on the portal were unsuccessful since the announcement of the job opportunity.
According to Agboola, the portal always logout whenever she wanted to submit her application.
Also, an X user, @paradoxxyl, lamented that the site had been down for days, saying he couldn’t access it to register.
Another user, @A3kutashi90, wrote, “This is to inform the general public that the site assigned for Federal Civil Service Commission #FCSC recruitment is yet to be accessible/stable since it was said to be open for applications. Till now, no improvement. Please ask the management to look into it.”
Similarly, @hamzzino criticised the website’s performance, saying, “Has anyone applied for any position on the Federal Civil Service Commission Recruitment Portal? walahi.
Whoever is handling it is very terrible at their job because I don’t understand why I’ll be up at 1 am just to submit a simple application, and it’s all crap.”
In her comment, Shektira Dauda, alleged that the technical difficulties were deliberate attempts to limit the number of applicants.
“To register was a tug of war, and saving and submitting is another battle. For days now, someone has been staying up all night, but no substantial progress at all. It is definitely deliberate—to streamline the number of people that will be able to apply,” she said.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the FCSC, Hassan Taiwo, admitted that some applicants had encountered difficulties in accessing the portal but insisted that others had been able to register successfully.
“There are some people who have been able to register. A lot of people who are interested have been visiting the website, including those outside the country. People should keep trying and not give up. The issue has been escalated to the ICT department,” Taiwo said.
However, when asked if the commission would consider extending the application deadline due to the technical glitches, he declined to comment further.
With thousands of job seekers unable to submit their applications, the recruitment exercise has been marred by growing frustration, leading many to call on the government to address the issue promptly and ensure a fair and transparent process.
