Influential Nigerian daily, ThisDay, has cleared the air over its recruitment test of last Saturday, September 1, which was exclusively reported in two stories by News Express. In two separate responses sent to the stories, “Hundreds write THISDAY test in Lagos, Abuja” and “Disappointment, lamentation at THISDAY test” the company’s Managing Director, Mr.

Eniola Bello, disputed some of our claims and threw light on the nature of the test, which we quoted as some of the candidates as labeling “too difficult.”

According to Bello, “the test was not conducted for every applicant to pass but to, as they say, sieve the wheat from the chaff. If the test was to be easy for everybody, there would have been no need for it in the first place.”

Defending the decision to give all applicants the same test irrespective of position applied for, the THISDAY MD said: “All those who applied and were invited for the test were graduates of universities or its equivalent. Being an aptitude test, there was nothing wrong having the same test for all classes of applicants. Since the applicants were supposed to be university graduates, we expected that they would have acquired a minimum level of knowledge to attempt the aptitude test.” He described the written test as “just one among many hurdles in the employment process.”

Bello faulted some of the details of our stories. He said that contrary to the claim that the vacancies were not published, “a vacancy ad was published in the newspaper everyday for more than one week.” He disclosed that “about 1300 people had sent in their applications before the process was closed. Only those who applied were invited, via email, for the test which held simultaneously in Lagos and Abuja.”

Bello further said that computer planners did not write the test and that in Abuja, the test did not take place at ThisDay Dome but at the premises of a school.

Our stories however remain substantially correct.

Published by the Lagos-based Leaders & Company Ltd since January 22, 1995, THISDAY is strong in politics and the economy.

*Photo: THISDAY MD, Eniola Bello.