The management of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has debunked claims that its recent 10, 000 jobs offer for 10, 000 youths in the Niger Delta was to lure them not to participate in the nationwide protest against hunger and economic hardship.
The NDDC Managing Director, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, made the denial while speaking at the official launch of the NDDC Youth Internship Scheme in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Ogbuku explained that the scheme and other programmes being embarked upon by the commission were neither an afterthought nor a response to the protest, which started on 1 August 2024.
Ogbuku had on Tuesday, 30 July 2024 during a Niger Delta Sensitisation Conference for Ethnic Nationalities and Youths in Port Harcourt announced that the Federal Government had approved a scheme to empower 10, 000 youths in the region with skills and that beneficiaries in the first phase would be paid N50,000 monthly.
Speaking on Monday, Ogbuku said the scheme had nothing to do with the hunger strike.
He stated, “When we wanted to host this programme some persons tried to discourage us to say why don’t you wait after the 10 days given by protesters?
“They said the protesters might come and disrupt the programme. We said well, ‘We are Niger Delta people. Let us use this event to test if actually, our Niger Delta people are not sensible enough to embrace something good’.
“Today you can see wherever we are watching from to see how quiet how calm, how responsible our youths are looking and if you go outside you can see that there is no trouble anywhere. Our people appreciate good things.
“The reason we are here today is for the launch of the portal of the youths internship scheme.
“I want to let all of us know that all the programmes that we have earmarked for the youths, which today we are launching, the Youths Internship Scheme as one of them, are not an afterthought or in reaction to the planned protest.
“All these programmes were carefully thought out and they were included in the NDDC budget 2024”.
Ogbuku explained that the call by the commission and other stakeholders on youths of the region not to partake in the 10-day protest was because the region has had its fair share of protests and had learnt to express the joy that the area had become peaceful.
