Issues
Wike’s 5,000 Civil Service Jobs: A Strategic Masterstroke
Good times are here again for the Youths of Rivers State as the State Government is poised to employ 5, 000 youths into the State Civil Service.
This good news was announced by Governor Nyesom Wike, in a state-wide broadcast to Rivers people on Wednesday, October 28, 2020.
The Governor said: “I have by the decision of the State Executive Council today, directed the Rivers State Civil Service Commission to take immediate steps to employ 5, 000 youths into teaching and other career positions in the State’s Civil Service as an immediate measure to reduce the level of youth unemployment.”
Governor Wike, who noted that the country’s worsening economic situation has wreaked untold hardship, frustration and hopelessness on the unemployed youth population, however assured them of his administration’s commitment to intensify efforts urgently to improve the State’s economy, create jobs and economic opportunities and ultimately improve the living conditions and wellbeing of Rivers people, especially the youths.
“In addition, we shall also continue to support our youth to acquire relevant skills or take up opportunities in small and medium scale enterprises to become self-employed and employers of labour,” he stated.
Recalling the recent #EndSARS protests across the country, which unfortunately turned ugly in some states, Governor Wike hailed Rivers Youths for their display of great maturity, orderliness in procession, resistance to overtures from anti-progressive enemies of the State and an unshakable determination and resolve to make their voices heard without violence, destruction and casualties.
“I wish to appreciate our youths and thank them for maintaining their cool and not yielding to the temptation to join the fray of violence and destruction that enveloped parts of our country,” the Governor said.
The Governor’s state broadcast was a re-affirmation of the approval given by the State Executive Council during its meeting on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, presided over by Governor Wike, which had earlier been announced by the State Commissioner for Employment Generation and Empowerment, Mr Sylvanus Nwankwo, in a Press Conference.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, Mr Nwankwo shed more light on the modalities of the employments, stating in particular that the youths must not be more than 35 years of age in order to be eligible for the employment and adding that there are already existing vacancies in the civil service needing Teachers, Engineers, Lawyers, Medical Doctors, Technicians and other fields of profession that these youths will fill once they meet the eligibility criteria.
The import of this wonderful news is quite amazing, especially when placed against the debilitating unemployment situation in the country and the dwindling fortunes of the national economy which Governor Wike alluded to in his statewide broadcast.
There is no doubt that a vast majority of Nigerians, especially the teeming youth population, have already concluded that 2020 is a year to forget in a hurry. The hopes and great expectations which the new year promised, were systematically dashed and eroded as the weeks and months were overtaken and swallowed in the darkness and uncertainty of the COVID-19 outbreak; a global pandemic which dislocated our normal existence and shut down the economy without any prior warning.
The #EndSARS protests broke out in the land, just when it appeared we were gradually flattening the Coronavirus curve and the destruction and carnage it has left in its wake across the country, has definitely added extra burden on rebuilding efforts which the fragile economy was beginning to muster in the COVID-19 new normal.
It is therefore against this bleak landscape that the Rivers State Government is providing 5, 000 jobs in the State Civil Service for Rivers Youths.
This is indeed quite impressive and commendable because, to employ 5, 000 youths in a time of pandemic, like the COVID-19 we are still grappling with, is a clear sign that the Governor Wike administration is one that has the interest and welfare of Rivers youth at heart.
This is even more heart-warming, especially in the present reality that while many States are still struggling to pay the new minimum wage and some are even downsizing their workforce to meet up with workers’ emoluments, the Rivers State Government and organised Labour reached a mutually satisfactory agreement, which was collectively accepted and endorsed by happy Rivers workers, who have already started enjoying the consequential adjustments.
Of course, more joy and happiness is coming the way of Rivers workers and residents from next week, as Civil servants on grade levels 1 to 10, who have been at home because of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, are to resume work on Monday, November 2, 2020.
Similarly, bars that have been closed down since COVID-19 lockdown are to open too, but night clubs will however remain closed for now, for recent obvious reasons.
Back to the exciting news of the 5, 000 jobs. The greater significance of this action is that the youths which the State Government is going to employ, are going to be employed for life, as the beauty of these jobs is that they will be in specific Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), operating with extant laws, where entry level qualifications and the age eligibility status are clearly spelt out.
It is a known fact that successive administrations in the State have come under heavy criticism for offering only the ad-hoc, manifestly thuggish and highly oppressive and intimidating “Taskforce” employment to youths over the years, but these 5, 000 jobs are for youths with certified qualifications in the specific fields of professional expertise which the Ministries represent.
Governor Wike has also pledged that the administration will continue to support Rivers youth to acquire relevant skills and provide entrepreneurial platforms for opportunities in small and medium scale enterprises and it is quite instructive to note that for arguably the first time in the history of Rivers State, the government heard the cries of the people and those ‘Task Forces’ which had harassed and literally turned the lives of ordinary Rivers men and women eking out a living for themselves and families, into a living hell, have all been dissolved and disbanded.
The Governor has also pledged to train the next set of Rivers youths who will subsequently be engaged into the reconstituted taskforces, which will be more orderly, regulated, civil and humane in the discharge of their responsibilities to Rivers people.
The decision to employ 5, 000 Rivers youths into the State Civil Service is even more awesome when one realises that this is coming at the same time when the legacy flyovers, the link roads and bridges across the communities as well as other outstanding infrastructural projects are nearing completion and commissioning. In fact, the Rebisi Flyover is scheduled to be commissioned on November 7, 2020 by the Minister of Works, Babatude Raji Fashola.
In addition, the Real Madrid Academy has already commenced with job advertisements for the massive recruitment of suitably qualified teaching and non teaching personnel in all the regular subjects, as well as Nurses, Gardeners, Security and messengers.
The $12million Rivers State Cassava Processing Company is already primed to create not less than 3, 000 jobs, with hundreds of micro and small businesses sprouting on the sidelines and with the concessioning of the already listed Rivers State farms and other state owned assets set to swing into full gear with the flattening of the COVID-19 curve and the gradual opening up of the economic space, it will be jobs galore in Rivers State going forward. Governor Wike is a promise keeper and he is keeping his promise to Rivers people.
All these have been conceptualised and achieved because, despite the notable distractions, the subversive obstacles and the deliberate attempts to sabotage and strangulate some critical revenue generating sources for the State, Governor Wike has continued to deliver a master class of firm, committed, pragmatic and courageous leadership in the last five years. He has made the welfare and interest of Rivers State and especially Rivers youths the number one priority of his administration and Rivers people know and love him for that.
“Mr Projects”, the people’s Governor is not only working round the clock to deliver on his promises to Rivers people, the new slogan in town now is that: “Wike is working and winning in Rivers State and beyond.”
The Chairman of National Youth Council of Nigeria, Rivers State and South-South zone, Ambassador Ihunwo Chijioke, summed it up with these words: “Rivers youths will now have a sense of inclusiveness in Governor Wike’s administration as he has demonstrated and reaffirmed that he is a youth friendly Governor.
“I never doubted the Governor when he said, during his campaign, that the youths will be his priority in this administration.
“I commend the Governor for his commitment and focus towards the affairs of Rivers State youths, while attending to the needs of other sectors. Rather than play politics with youth issues, or pay lip service to our plight, he came out openly to attend to us.
“Our youths should continue to support Governor Wike by embracing peace and be law abiding. Development can only come in an environment where there is peace,” he added.
Nsirim, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, wrote this piece from Port Harcourt.
Paulinus Nsirim
This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
