. Workers, businessmen, politicians hijack scheme for youths
The effort of the Federal Government to create jobs for the unemployed through the World Bank-assisted FADAMA III Graduate Unemployed Youth and Women Support (GUYS) programme has suffered major set back in Niger State.
Reason: Traders, civil servants and politicians instead of the trained unemployed made the list of 300 beneficiaries of the two-week intensive exercise waiting to receive the grants.
It was gathered that card-carrying members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state made the list thereby defeating the aim and objective of the World Bank’s two-week training, which took place simultaneously in three locations; the state-owned College of Agriculture, Mokwa, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBU), Lapai; and the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna.
Besides, most of the beneficiaries, according to investigation, fall beyond the age limit (they are not unemployed youths), which further heightened the fears that the ‘job creation’ may yield little or no result except urgent steps are taken to ensure that subsequent lists are properly scrutinized. Although the Niger State Project Coordinator FADAMA III, Aliyu Usman Kutigi, could not be reached for comments on the scandal rocking the $1 billion World Bank intervention exercise, one of the applicants, Asabe Usman, said that the entire exercise fall short of expectations.
Asabe said that she was among 100 jobless youths from her zone that applied and trained in Mokwa but could not understand why their names did not appear on the list while that of civil servants in the state appeared.
Asabe, a Diploma holder with no job for three years, also accused the handlers of the FADAMA scheme of being religious bias, saying, “I was surprised that other names including somebody I know far older than me, working in one of the government agencies is on the list”.
Many other unemployed graduates applied but they were not called, Asabe who spoke to our correspondent at the Abdulsalami Abubarkar Youth Centre, venue for the closing ceremony, said, adding that, “By age we are ok, we are also jobless and have nothing doing since after graduation”.
Meanwhile, the National Coordinator of the FADAMA III, Mr. Tayo Adewumi, has advised all those who may not benefit from the $1 billion World Bank Women Entrepreneurship Finance Initiative (WEFI) not to feel bad but to put the skills acquired for self-development.
The FADAMA III National Coordinator, represented by the scheme’s Head of Training, Mr. Goni Malah, however, did not give the exact number of applicants that will benefit from the grant out of the 4, 176 unemployed graduates that applied so far and the criteria to be used.
He said, “We have a number of applications but it is not all the applicants that would benefit. I know some of you even family members can raise the amount you need to start-off because the starter pack cannot go round all the people that benefited from the two weeks intensive training”.