Exorcising youth unemployment in Niger Delta region

Sir: When the Minister of Niger Delta Development (MNDD), Abubakar Momoh, in November 2023, inaugurated the new Governing Board of the Niger Development Commission (NDDC) with a charge that they should have on their fingertips the Eight-point Presidential Priorities that would guide the board in its development strides of the Niger Delta region, the people of the region were thrilled.

Their happiness was informed by the fact that members of the new governing board and management, going by their antecedent will keep the Commission up and running in its bid to “facilitate the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful.

The euphoria that greeted their coming was further heightened when the new governing board and management upon assumption of duty, articulated thematic programmes, initiatives and areas that will assist the Commission drive a coordinated and sustainable development of the region.

These policies, programmes and initiatives include: Building partnerships; project hope for renewed hope; lighting up the Niger Delta; carbon emission reduction; sustainable livelihoods; stakeholder engagement; improved youth capacity and skills base; effective and professional workforce; efficient and cost-effective projects; improved peace and security etc.

These initiatives, going by commentaries, not only meet the developmental needs of the people but stand as a perfect response to the social and economic crisis in the Niger Delta.

Essentially, ‘‘with malice to none but charity to all,’’ it is not as if past administrations in the country did not, at different times and places make efforts to address the region’s challenges. But noble as those efforts were, considering the level of underdevelopment in the region, such effort appeared too insignificant and short of what is required to care for the region’s development and more particularly, remains a far cry from what was needed to exorcise the ghost of infrastructural shortfalls and youth unemployment in the region.

It is of a fact that if there is any area that Niger Deltans had all these years wished to see improvement in, and if there are areas the present governing board and management have, to the admiration of all, performed superlatively in the past ten months, it is in the areas of infrastructural provision particularly lighting up of Niger Delta region and human capital development through youth empowerment/job creation. Empowerment, for instance, has strategically addressed proliferation of youth restiveness- a threat which was more likely among the large army of professionally trained ex-agitators currently without a job.

This effort in youth empowerment becomes even more evident when one remembers the recent news report that the Commission has registered 3.2 million youths in its Holistic Opportunities Programmes for Engagement, Project HOPE, since the first phase of the programme, which was launched on July 4, 2023.

This was announced by the NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, during the launching of the second phase at the Rivers State Information, Communication and Technology, ICT Centre in Port Harcourt.

• Jerome-mario Utomi, a media professional, wrote from Lagos.