Presidential aide, Garba Shehu has been dragged online by Nigerians for sharing an outdated job application on social media.
On Thursday evening, the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari posted on his verified Twitter handle: “Our young graduates may wish to apply for the Graduate Fellowship by UNDP. They will place 20,000 graduates into 1-year internships in various multi National companies and development partners. The salary is good and the experience is unquantifiable.
“The link for the fellowship is njfp.ng and it is co sponsored by UNDP and EU. This is a great opportunity for our unemployed graduates. Please help us give it widest publicity.”
Some Nigerians were disappointed after opening the link only to find out that it was the application portal for the Nigeria Jubilee Fellows Programme of last year, in which it is clearly stated that “Applications are open from 6 September to 20 October 2021.”
The disappointed Nigerians reacted harshly. One Jerry Douglas (@jerrydouglas19) said, “Tueh! How can you do this Malam Garba? Urging us to go to a closed application portal since 2021 in March 2022. No wonder Nigeria is like this. You guys have run the country aground. SMH.”
Another Twitter user wondered why a top government official would share something with the public without prior verification.
“Without verification? I don’t forward links without verification, not to talk of a high profile govt official,” replied @LDabibi.
@emma_okobundu: “This tweet just summarizes everything about Nigeria, this government and those running it. Just copy and paste. Imagine this coming from a high level government official. This is too amateurish.”
Garba Shehu has recorded a number of controversies in the past.
He was under heavy criticism when he said only 10 students were abducted from the 333 abducted students of Kankara in Katsina State in December, 2020. He later apologised for misleading the public.
He was also severely criticised by Nigerians after he granted an interview with BBC on the killing of 66 people, mostly farmers, at Koshobe village near Zabarmari in Jere Local Government Area of Borno State, in which he said the victims had not got military clearance to farm.
