YouthhubAfrica, a youth-focused non-profit group, has called on the federal government to investigate, rejig and complete the United Nations Junior Professional Officers Programme (UNJPO) which it signed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) almost three years ago.
In a statement released on Monday, June 22, entitled ‘Re-Imagining the UN JPO Programme in Nigeria’, which was signed by the YouthhubAfrica Executive Director, Rotimi Olawale, the group noted that despite the N2.1 billion set aside for the project in the 2013 and 2014 budgets of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, no young Nigerian has benefitted from the said project till date.
According to the statement, the youth group is more worried over the claim of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development in response to a Freedom of Information request sent by YouthhubAfrica, that it is still in the process of actualising the programme, despite that there are no budgetary provisions for it in the 2015 budget.
While commending Nigeria as the only African country, out of over 20 countries of the world, that has signed on to the UN JPO programme, the YouthhubAfrica however stressed that it is not proper that the plan sits on paper. It noted that the initial agreement was to deploy 37 young Nigerian professionals, one from each state and the FCT, to work with the UN in several locations around the world and gain priceless professional experiences.
“We are convinced that the JPO holds a huge potential to create a crop of young professionals, and we therefore recommend that budget, for it to be inserted into the 2015 supplementary budget and the Ministry of Youth Development to re-initiate conversation with the UNDP to bring the programme to light.
“We will continue to engage with the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, the National Assembly, the UN System in Nigeria and other relevant stakeholders to ensure that the project is completed while continuing to monitor the programmes and policies of government targeted at young people,” Olawale stated.