President Muhammadu Buhari’s 500,000 job intervention programme for unemployed graduates has finally kicked off, with successful applicants commencing work on December 1, 2016.
The programme is in line with the 2015 election campaign promises of ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to provide jobs for teeming unemployed youths in the country.
The fulfilment is, however, coming precisely one year and seven months after the administration came on stream.
The project has had several hiccups, which elicited doubts in many Nigerians about its practicability.
This persisted until the Office of the Vice President where the project is domiciled, announced that it was factored into the 2016 national budget signed into law by President Buhari on May 6, 2016.
To this end, a statement from the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s office yesterday stated that “all is now set for the deployment of 200,000 unemployed graduates selected in the first batch of the Buhari administration’s plan to hire half a million Nigerians.”
Nigerian Union of Teachers, NUT, reacted swiftly, commending the government for matching words with action but warned that those engaged to teach in schools should be right professionals.
This is even as Organised Labour hailed the Federal Government’s efforts, saying any programme that could take such huge number of youths off the streets should be supported.
Meanwhile, unveiling details of the programme in the statement from the Vice President’s office, government stated that the names of the selected 200,000 had been sent to state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, who would deploy them to assignments in various communities.
According to the statement, the names will also be published this week on the N-Power internet portal, while participants will start receiving SMS messages informing them of their selection from today, even as the Federal Government congratulated the successful candidates.
The statement read in part: “State governments and the FCT are also encouraged to post the names of the successful first batch applicants in their local government areas, while there would be further public announcements.
Leave a Reply