It has been brought to our attention that the Minister of State for Labour, Employment and Productivity, Festus Keyamo, SAN, in collaboration with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), has been directed to go ahead with the recruitment of fresh 774,000 Nigerian youths who will serve in various community development projects.
Such a good initiative is indeed highly commendable and worthy of emulation.
However, based on the purported messages going round on social media platforms, we notice that the recruitment exercise has been kicked off nationwide and the registration centres are said to be located at the NDE offices in the main states’ headquarters across the country.
Our observation here is, considering the current challenging situations of the country which range from COVID-19 pandemic, insurgency of bandits and Boko Haram groups and the sadistic activities of kidnappers, it is highly perilous and risky to invite millions of unemployed people, especially those from rural areas, to go for the physical job application.
It is obvious that some will need to travel to hundreds of kilometres to get to the registration points.
If truly this empowerment programme is meant for the local people and equally you want to balance the equation of 1000 people per LGA, then you shouldn’t locate the centre of the programme at the states’ main headquarters only.
We therefore call on the President, the Minister of Labour and Employment, and Director General, National Directorate of Employment (NDE), to reconsider their stand and decentralise the registration centre of the programme to each of the 774 local government areas of the country.
And/or, if possible, consider online recruitment for easy accessibility by our local people.
Amb. Kassim Abubakar Gamawa, North-East Zonal Coordinator, Intellectual Young Leaders Network, the Restoration Freedom Movement (IYLN-RFM) of Nigeria (IYLN-RFM) Nigeria
A. Okafor, 080696528**
