In a bid to decongest unemployment situation that has formed a hydra-headed monster in Nigeria at large, Governor Rochas Anayo Okorocha of Imo State has ordered unemployed graduates in the State to get ready to be fully engaged in the farm land acquired by government in each of the autonomous community among 637 communities in the state.
This action seemed to have frustrated thousands of degree and certificate-carrying unemployed graduates who emptied into the state capital to witness and be part of the Youth-Must-Work program unfolded yesterday.
Many graduates who were in Owerri the state capital with photocopies of their credentials for civil service jobs and possible employment in the state work force went home disappointed as no white collar job was to be made available to them.
Governor Okorocha made this known yesterday at Heroes Square Owerri while launching a programme he called “youth must work”.
He advised the youth to ensure that they fill the farm designated for the exercise adding that state government for the exercise will soon collaborate with House of Assembly to enact a law that would prosecute unemployed youths any moment from now.
The Governor charged Ministry of Agriculture to work in synergy with Community Government Council (CGC) to ensure that at least a hectare of farm land is established in each of the communities where youths will be gainfully employed adding that unemployment situation will be a thing of past after the exercise as those who are not interesting in Agric sector shall be engaged in super markets and oil companies among viable working carriers in the state.
According to Governor, five billion naira interest free loan will be set aside to cushion the plights and challenges of the unemployed youths. Governor Okorocha further approved ten thousand naira monthly stipend for each corps-member serving in the state which he said will be paid to them via CGC.
He further expressed dissatisfaction that the alleged sixty seven billion naira mismanaged by the immediate past administration would have gone a long way to arrest unemployment in Imo State, maintaining that EFCC should do further investigation on the said fraud.
Speaking further, Okorocha said that he has allocated about N5m each to members of the Imo State House of Assembly for employment purposes.
He also promised to procure at least five hundred cabs for the youth who might have interest in transportation business. He further said that in the Private Partnership Program, PPP, people shall be posted to hotels and supermarkets where they will be paid by the respective employers.
Earlier, the Imo State Coordinator of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) thanked the Governor for organizing such exercise adding that youth will always support him in all ramifications.
Reacting on the matter, a frontline youth leader and the National Secretary of Imo Youth Assembly, Comrade Precious Nwadike stated that “Okorocha should not toy and deceive Imo youths as he is also a graduate as we are meant to understand and should not treat the unemployed ones some of who graduated with better qualifications than him in the manner he is going now. Everybody cannot be Governor and that is why some of us are not governors today otherwise we are eminently qualified to be governors going by our academic qualification. We feel pained in us that Governor Okorocha who hails from Orlu zone could mobilize the youths of Imo State just to tell stories of how governance has failed in the state”
. According to Nwadike who is also the President of OrluZurumee Youth Assembly, “we had earlier advised Governor Okorocha to engage the N10, 000 job beneficiaries rather than creating 15,000 jobs for another set of unemployed graduates and that is our position both at Orluzurumee Youth Assembly and Imo Youth Assembly. We are graduates and not market women as such we should not be told certain stories politicians tell artisans and market women. The idea of posting our young girls to hotels is another way of encouraging graduates to go into prostitution at a time like this when the Governor should make frantic effort to revamp the Imo State industrial layout at Onitsha road by simply making the roads accessible and reducing cost of production and encourage Imolites to come home and invest. The youths who benefited from the 10,000 jobs created by the last administration should be reconsidered than this new gospel from the present administration. We should not be toys in the hands of our leaders”
