Nearly two years after receiving employment offers from the Central Bank of Nigeria, at least 60 recruits from across the country say they are still waiting to be posted.
What initially appeared to be a promising career opportunity has instead left many of them unemployed, financially burdened and emotionally distressed after resigning from their former jobs in line with the bank’s conditions.
For one of the recruits, Benedict Ali Ojobo, the offer he received in August 2023 was meant to signal the start of a new phase marked by stability, professional growth and national service. Instead, it has turned into a prolonged and painful experience. Almost two years after receiving the appointment letter, Ojobo said he and several others are still awaiting posting, caught in a prolonged uncertainty that has resulted in emotional trauma, financial hardship and severe personal losses.
Ojobo, who hails from Benue State, was officially offered employment by the apex bank on August 28, 2023, according to documents seen by the correspondent. Accepting the offer required significant sacrifices, including giving up an anticipated career advancement at his former workplace.
“I missed a promotion examination to the position of Assistant Director, Pharmaceutical Services, because it coincided with the date fixed for the collection of my appointment letter and documentation at the CBN headquarters in Abuja,” he said.
The decision later proved costly.
“Hence, I missed a due promotion from Chief Pharmacist to Assistant Director in October 2023.”
Believing the opportunity would transform his career, Ojobo completed all required documentation. However, since October 2023, he said he has remained in waiting with no training schedule, posting or clear explanation from the bank.
“I have done all documentation and have been awaiting training and posting since October 2023,” he said.
Before travelling to Abuja for the final stages of the recruitment process, Ojobo shared the news with his father, a retired primary school teacher who was extremely proud of his son’s achievement. Despite battling diabetes and hypertension, the elderly man accompanied him to the capital for the final medical screening.
“My father believed in the authenticity of the process,” Ojobo recalled. “He even accompanied me to Abuja for the final medical tests.”
To him, the employment symbolised the reward for years of hard work and discipline. However, the excitement soon turned into a tragic series of events.
Because Ojobo was working in Makurdi while his father lived in Otukpo, the elderly man initially did not realise that months had passed without his son resuming work. The truth eventually emerged through Ojobo’s younger sister, Christiana Omeche Ojobo, who lived with him at the time.
“On hearing that I had not resumed work despite collecting the employment letter, my father suffered a heart attack instantly,” Ojobo said.
The shock eventually led to his father’s death.
“My father never recovered from that shock,” he said quietly. He was buried on May 25, 2025.
The tragedies did not end there. Ojobo said a close friend, Pharmacist Lawal Muktar, who travelled from Zaria to attend the burial, died in a road accident on his way.
“He was buried a day before my father’s burial,” Ojobo said.
The emotional strain also deeply affected his younger sister, who had been present when their father collapsed. According to Ojobo, she struggled with intense guilt after revealing the news that triggered the fatal shock.
“My father died shouting, ‘Oh Nigeria, oh Nigeria,’” Ojobo recounted.
The trauma later took a serious toll on her health. Ojobo said his sister developed severe health complications linked to post-traumatic stress and cardiac problems. After months of illness, she underwent heart surgery at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital but did not survive the operation.
“My dearest sister, Omeche Christiana Ojobo, later died during the heart surgery on May 30, 2024,” he said.
For Ojobo, the delayed employment that once represented hope has become a painful reminder of a chain of losses that followed a job offer which never translated into actual work.