Abia youths mega summit: Remove yrs of experience for recruitment – Ikpeazu
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has appealed to the various tiers of government in Nigeria to remove years of experience as a precondition for recruitment in various government agencies.
Ikpeazu was speaking at the first Abia Youth Mega Summit with the theme: “A productive Engagement for Impact; Igniting Youth Entrepreneurship” at the international Conference Center, Umuahia, arguing that one who has never tried his hands on any job at all will not be able to have any experience.
“If I’m asked to make one appeal to all arms of government in Nigeria on behalf of the youths, my appeal will be that we should banish years of experience as precondition for recruitment in various government offices”, he stated.
Dr. Ikpeazu who recommended skills acquisition as the solution to the many challenges confronting youths in Nigeria, argued that youths with skills will not go cap in hand in search of jobs but rather be self-reliant and employers of labour and challenged the youths to take their destinies in their hands to become high fliers.
The greatest gift of Abia state, he said is its human capital which if provided with the right environment will reach very great heights.
According to him, Abia’s contribution to the GDP of Nigeria is huge as up to one million Abians are producing shoes, bags and garments for Nigeria and other African countries, adding that the made in Aba campaign mounted by his government has resulted in the Aba producer stamping his products proudly made in Aba.
In a paper he presented entitled “The NYSC Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development Programme and its implications for a sustainable National Youth Empowerment Strategy”, the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps scheme, Brig Gen Suleiman Kazuare said that no nation has achieved meaningful development in terms of industrial and economic growth without encouraging skill acquisition and enterprise promotion.
‘’ I think enough is not being done to empower the youth segment of the Nigerian population because policy formulation and corresponding actions have been left only in the hands of government for too long’’, he lamented.
The chairman of the occasion and commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Prince Christopher Enweremadu thanked the federal government for partnering with several agencies to empower Nigerian youths as well as Governor Ikpeazu for doing a lot of tangible things to empower the youths of the state.
