NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

By Ifeatu Agbu. Joblessness among Nigerian youths is now a serious security threat that can no longer be treated cavalierly. The increasing cases of kidnappings in the Niger Delta and the South East are part of the prize a society pays for not constructively engaging its youths in productive endeavours. From all indications, the precarious situation in the Niger Delta has been compounded by an army of unemployed youths, who vent their frustrations on an uncaring society. Some of these restive youths may have been forced into militancy and criminality for survival. Bringing them back to the path of rectitude would therefore require providing them with jobs. The recent victims of kidnapping have one message for the government, which is to provide jobs for the youths. Ace actor and broadcaster, Chief Pete Edochie, who regained his freedom from kidnappers after 24-hour captivity, said his abductors told him they held him to express their displeasure over politicians’ flamboyant lifestyle at the expense of the youths, who suffer economic hardship because of unemployment. “They warned me to let government know exactly how they feel,” he said. The kidnappers of Chief Elechi Amadi, a renowned author, also asked him to pass the same message to the government. The septuagenarian gave a first-hand account of what joblessness can lead to in a society which is abundantly blessed by nature yet seriously impoverished by a visionless and selfish ruling class. According to Elechi Amadi, who is concerned about the plight of youths in the oil-producing region, his captors complained bitterly thus: ‘We don’t have jobs, we have skills. The governor is not providing jobs. Even Okada which some of us were riding, is now banned. We don’t have money…” Of course, these can not justify resorting to criminality, but they nevertheless underscore the well known fact that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. For the celebrated author, the solution lies in making jobs available, for the youths. “Let them acquire skills and then empower them so that they can make a living. If people are employed, they wouldn’t have time to take people to the bush to extort money,” he advised the government. Another victim, Chief Godwin Okeke, chairman of G.U.O Group of Companies who was kidnapped last month in Onitsha said that what the boys were constantly telling him while he was with them was that they have no job, adding that those of them who were working were later sacked. He appealed to the five governors of the South East states to provide jobs for university graduates, as according to him, the boys who abducted him sounded so brilliant and spoke good English. They also have marvellous planning strategy, he said. Put simply, the message is that the energies of the youths need to be positively channelled through educational and vocational training. This will enhance their chances of getting good jobs. Better Still, it will make them to become self-employed and subsequently become employers of labour. This is a challenge for all the stakeholders in the Niger Delta, particularly the federal, state and local governments as well as the oil companies. The Niger Delta Development Commission [NDDC] appreciated this fact earlier and has since been organizing skill acquisition trainings in different fields. In January 2008, the commission started an agricultural training programme in conjunction with Songhai Delta, a reputable capacity building and youth empowerment centre based in Amupke, Delta State. The scheme was designed to train 3,400 youths in the Niger Delta in various aspects of agriculture. In the first phase, 1,700 participants selected from Bayelsa and Delta states were exposed to modern techniques of aquaculture, poultry production, bee keeping, grass cutter production, piggery, agro-processing, among others. Also last year, 7,732 youths from the Niger Delta graduated from other Skills Acquisition programmes of the NDDC. Out of this number, 2,204 were trained in computer literacy and 1,929 in welding. Another 3,599 young boys and girls acquired skills in such areas as automobile mechanics, aluminium and furniture works, electrical installation and maintenance, home management skills outboard engine maintenance, printing, photography as well as refrigeration and cooling technology. The skill acquisition strategy seems to have taken roots as it is now being factored into development plans of several state and local governments in the region. Perhaps, this also informed the position of the Ledum Mitee-led Technical Committee on the Niger Delta on the matter. The committee recommended the creation of a Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) – where 2,000 jobs will be provided in each local government council in the zone, to keep the youths meaningfully busy and away from the temptations of militancy and other untoward behaviour. It is reassuring that the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF, is also towing the same line of using jobs as the antidote to criminality in the Niger Delta. Its Executive Secretary, Engr. Mustapha Rabe Darma said recently that the fund is establishing a centre for skills development and training in Port Harcourt. The centre, which will be housed in a five-storey building, will train 500 Nigerians with or without formal education annually in areas such as computer literacy, continuing education, beauty and hair dressing, baking and catering, soap and detergent making, tailoring, carpentry as well as the processing of polymer and its by-products. It will also have a library. Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Ufot Ekaette, said in Abuja while delivering a speech titled: “Our Roadmap to Peace and Security in the Niger Delta Region: The 7-Point Agenda Connection,” at the opening of a 3-day National Programme on Human Resource Development for Enhanced National Security that “in preparation for the provision of employment for ex-militants, the ministry has already identified qualified private sector service providers to train and provide jobs for trainees." Ekaette explained that “while the security agencies are handling the disarmament and demobilisation of the ex-militants, my ministry has worked out modalities for the re-integration of those who sign up for the amnesty. The re-integration involves reconciliation of ex-militants with the society through value re-orientation, mental adjustment as well as rehabilitation." President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua also appreciates the importance of youth empowerment in addressing the Niger Delta crisis. This probably explains why the 2009 budget made provision for the building of world class skill acquisition centres. Apparently, the government was alarmed by the recent statistics released by the Ministry of Youth Development which shows that 80 per cent of our youths are unemployed, while ten per cent are under-employed. All the efforts at achieving rapid socio-economic transformation of the country will come to naught if our youths, including graduates, are allowed to roam the streets with little or no prospects of getting jobs. In that circumstance, no amount of preachment will reduce criminality. The most potent weapon against youth criminality is gainful employment. This can best be achieved if the President gives teeth to the fight against corruption, which makes the ruling class to blatantly steal all the money meant for the development of the country, which would have led to the generation of jobs. * Mr. Agbu writes from Port Harcourt.