Rivers youths, their parents, scramble for job placements

Rivers youths, their parents, scramble for job placements

By PHC Telegraph

A huge scramble for jobs is going on in Rivers State where the government is planning to recruit no less than 10,000 workers.

For this number of available spaces, one hundred and forty thousand youths of working age have already applied, according to information emanating from the Rivers State Civil Service Commission.

Officials who are keeping tabs on statistics that are being gathered say the number of applicants looking for work is mind boggling.

This will mean that at least an average of 14 qualified persons are aspiring to get each of the jobs that have been advertised by the Wike administration.

Initially, the plan by the Rivers Government was to recruit 5000 persons into the State Civil Service.

That number of jobs was however doubled, following the intervention of Governor Nyesom Wike.

Wike announced a few months ago that 10,000 new workers would be admitted into the service.

They include mainstream Civil servants who will be engaged at the State Secretariat, judicial workers that are to be recruited by the Judicial Service Commission, heaith workers who would be admitted by the Health Management Board and teachers who would be employed through Rivers State Schools Board.

Across the State, the hunt for jobs has taken a new turn as stakeholders come under pressure from youths and their parents who desperately want their children and wards to pick up “Wike jobs” as the new jobs are called.

Most young graduates have been unemployed for upwards of 10 years or more after taking part in the nation’s compulsory NYSC scheme.

The parallel information market which spins all kinds of tales reveals that some people are already selling job spaces for as much as N300,000.

We have learnt that the agency saddled with the  task of handling the recruitment exercise, the Civil Service Commission, has similarly intimated the State authorities about its asignment.

It is not clear how government will go about ensuring that job spaces are evenly distributed among people drawn from local government areas.

A source told this medium that “a quota system may by adopted in the long run in order to ensure that people from all the 23 Local Government Areas of the State benefit.”

Jobs: Hope Rises As Sim Contemplates Gas Hubs, Industrial Investments:

Although Siminalayi Fubara, Governor-Elect of Rivers State is yet to be sworn in, his pledge to build gas and industrial hubs in parts of the State is resonating with the people and raising quite a lot of hope.

Fubara, a former top civil servant is hoping when he steps in to create jobs by injecting scarce funds into ventures which would largely provide opportunity and empower youths.

Fubara’s blueprint which itemises what he will do places high priority on youths who are becoming part of the digital economy.

Similarly, the blueprint identifies sports development which is turning into a cash spinner as another area of emphasis.

Said an insider, “Fubara has everything clearly thought out. That is why he is already talking about jobs and more jobs through wealth creation.

“This suggests that Sim may be relying on commerce and industry in his bid to extend the pace of social progress and economic growth.”

Governor Wike has urged the people of the State to throw their weight behind Sim, saying his successor would do better in office.

While Rivers people ponder over Sim’s impending plan and how he intends to execute it, the scramble for the jobs promised by the Wike administration continues.