Tuesday, June 30, 2009


Edo employment scheme takes off with 400 graduates
From Alemma-Ozioruva Aliu, Benin

EDO State Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday flagged off the youth employment scheme with the take-off of induction programme for 400 graduates from various fields into the Edo Youth Employment Scheme (Edo-YES).


The Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole shakes hands with some of the graduates at the orientation of the newly employed 400 youths under EDO YES [Youth Empowerment Scheme.)

http://odili.net/news/source/2009/jun/30/14.html

While welcoming the new workers who are likely to be absorbed into the state civil service in future, Oshiomhole appealed to Edo House of Assembly and leadership of the 18 local councils to collaborate with the state government to create employment opportunities for the people as a way of reducing crime in the state.

Oshiomhole had promised to create 10,000 jobs shortly after he assumed office late last year, which salaries he said, would be jointly paid by the state government and the local councils.

But the project ran into a hitch when the council chairmen backed out of an earlier agreement reached with the governor to jointly fund the scheme through the deduction of a percentage of their monthly allocations. They said there must be legislation from the state House of Assembly to make the deductions statutory.

But Oshiomhole yesterday said the state government had to go ahead with its promise even though the other tier of government was yet to participate fully in the scheme.

He said the 400 persons, selected after series of tests, were the first batch of beneficiaries in the project.

According to him, the aim of the initiative was to give the beneficiaries the opportunity to look after themselves and reduce the increasing graduate unemployment level in the state just as he added that the same gesture would be extended to those "without degrees, technical and secondary certificates".

"We will give you all the encouragement you need to find satisfaction in your job. But remember that what we can do as government is to give you the opportunity to look after yourselves. What you actually make out of it is entirely in your hands. I have said elsewhere that our job creation programme is not born out of the fact that we have all the resources we need. It is born by our own conviction that the primary purpose of government is the welfare of the people."

He pointed out that in seeking to deal with the rising wave of crime in the state, the government would continue to provide needed facilities to assist security agencies. But he was quick to add that the best means to stop crime was to engage the people.

"I am convinced that the greatest weapon to fight crime will be to prevent people from going into crime.

"Many of those men are not born criminals but the environment criminalises them. The more the number of people employed, the more the reduction in crime. So, Edo Youth Employment Scheme will help to reduce the number of jobless people in our society".

Speaking with journalists later, the Executive Director, Information Communication Technology (ICT) Unit, Yemi Kerry, said the new employees would be trained for four weeks before they would be deployed to carry out biometric and audit verification of the state.

Na small small.