N-Power graduates recruitment and matters arising

Ordinarily, the news report on the front page of the Daily Trust edition of Wednesday, March 1, 2017, with its tantalizing and eye-catching title, “FG hires 350,000 more graduates for N-Power”, would  have been a news announcement worth celebrating by all qualified but unemployed graduates throughout the country.  But so far, the lapses and shortcomings […]

Ordinarily, the news report on the front page of the Daily Trust edition of Wednesday, March 1, 2017, with its tantalizing and eye-catching title, “FG hires 350,000 more graduates for N-Power”, would  have been a news announcement worth celebrating by all qualified but unemployed graduates throughout the country. 

But so far, the lapses and shortcomings recorded since the take-off of this  laudable,  well conceived and well-motivated social intervention program, belies its lofty objective, especially for many poor candidates, particularly those from the rural North, who have no godfathers to defend them and are usually neglected by their officials and exposed to all the dirty tricks and predatory manipulations in the hands of official touts during the so-called screening sessions.

 These complaints were unequivocally expressed by Zamfara students during the scholarship screening exercise organised by the Federal Ministry of Education.

 I want to repeat my previous appeal to Northern governors and their state officials to be more  proactive and pay special attention to this recruitment  exercise and several others such as enlistments into various ministries, the armed forces, police, paramilitary establishments among others, during which many states in the North-West, North-East and North-Central, were short-changed by mercenaries in the past.  

 I urge states in the North to look into this matter by demanding for a copy of the final list of all substantive recruitment exercises conducted by the federal government or its agent.

 Northern governors must wake up to their responsibilities or will forever be held responsible for the plight of unemployed youths in the region.

Abdulkarim Muhammad Abdullahi wrote from Keffi, Nasarawa State.