Edo State Government on Sunday recalled the effort of the Forum for Progressive Governors in tackling the menace of unemployment in the country saying it manifested during the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment last Saturday across the country.
While describing it as sad, unfortunate and an embarrassment to the world, the state government sympathized with the families of those who lost their loved ones during the exercise.
The Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere told reporters in Benin City while reacting to the unfortunate death of about 18 persons and the mammoth crowd that greeted the NIS recruitment exercise that, “two weeks ago, I represented Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at the meeting of the Forum of Progressive Governors where we discussed this issue of unemployment.
“The truth of the matter is that those pictures that you see at the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment test across the country demonstrates the problem of Nigeria. It shows failure at all levels particularly at the Federal, to stimulate growth and development that will create investments and jobs, so that people will not be dying when they are trying to write exams.
“This is an embarrassment to the world because, this is the same kind of numbers you have in virtually all the states and it tells you where criminality and criminal gangs recruit there members from, the pressure on families and why the middle class cannot grow.
“We have no training to package people who have qualifications that can work, we have no serious training on how to get people self employed, not even on how to encourage people to go for post-graduate training for specialized courses so that they can be employed or self employed. We just abandon young people and when they say they should come and write test in a stadium without tables, people are dying; it’s very sad, very unfortunate, I weep for Nigeria”, Ihonvbere stated.
Continuing, Ihonvbere said the reason his Senatorial district is suffering was because men of integrity and character have not represented it at the national level. According to him, “we have no teaching hospital. We have no university. We have no industries until the coming of Adams Oshiomhole who is now involved in industrial investment.
“Go and look at how many of our youths are unemployed; this insult has to stop at some point. We have to rise beyond his ethnic narrow calculations to get to the point where we send our first eleven or our very best who can represent us. Somebody who can stand up anytime of the day and anywhere to articulate an agenda that will benefit Afenmai land in the first instance.
“It is when people are afraid to compete, they have no first eleven, they cannot put up their best material, they cannot articulate an agenda and purpose for which they are into politics that is why they hide under the ethnic identity.
“We have gone beyond those kind of infantile political gerrymandering and looking for quality representation; the best person who can do it, who has the strength of character to go there and perform and not whether you come from one village or town because that is what is killing Nigeria today.”
