By Uzor Odigbo
Maritime group, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC), has criticized the Rivers State government’s plot to recruit 5,000 youths into the state civil service, stressing that it is “unachievable”.
The group said that the Governor Nyesom Wike-led administration did not have the capacity to employ or pay 5,000 workers at a time the nation was struggling economicaly.
The group, through the National Co-ordinator of SNFFIEC, Chief Osita Chukwu Patrick, called on Wike to give further details about the vacancies that exist in the state ministries, adding that no state across the federation could make such moves with scarce resources.
According to the group, the engineering and medical sub-sectors in the state could not accommodate 1,000 workers, urging the youths in the state to continuously engage the governor to fulfill his promises.
It further queried the existing vacancies in the state ministries which, according to the group, could nnot engage a total of 1,000 youths.
“Wike cannot pay the salaries of the proposed 5,000 youths.
“Let them stop deceiving the youths in that state for any reason. The state government just feels like announcing what is not possible at a time like this because he wants the youths to be quite,” it noted.
The Rivers State Executive Council had approved the employment of 5,000 youths into the state Civil Service.
The approval was given during its meeting on Wednesday October 28, 2020, which was presided over by Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike and held at Government House, Port Harcourt on Wednesday. Briefing journalists after the meeting, the state Commissioner for Employment Generation and Empowerment, Mr. Sylvanus Nwankwo, said that the youths must not be more than 35 years.