ROT IN RUST: IS GOV AMAECHI AWARE?

By BENIBO GEORGE

SIR, Your ongoing efforts at re-engineering Rivers state is quite commendable and the milestone achieved so far in both conceptualisation and actual implementation of people-driven policies and programmes cannot but also be commended especially as it affects the youths of the state.

Your Excellency, haven followed your ideas and believe of what the new Rivers state should be, it has become imperative that your attention be drawn to an existing sore point in your efforts to re-orient the Rivers youths (and others) and ensure the hardworking ones don't suffer unnecessary hardship and discrimination which may tempt them to opt for criminality and gangsterism.

The matter is with your state-owned Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RUST) where issues that affect sending the names of graduated students for the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) are being treated with I-don't –care attitude by lecturers and administrators of the institution.

Rivers (and other ) students who graduated from the institution cannot with any certainty tell you when they will be going for their Youth Service programme because the school authourity does not see any urgency in preparing their list and other schedules for the NYSC secretariat to enable posting of the graduates from the school.

This matter deserves your urgent attention because delays in sending graduates of the institution out for NYSC places the candidates in a very disadvantaged position as people that graduated the session with them will be placed or rather ranked above them especially in civil service and even other corporate appointments. This is because you are graded with the date of the national service.

Most of the faculties especially engineering and environmental sciences uptil now are not even doing anything to prepare their lists for the next NYSC orientation programme even when the deadline for submission is very much around the corner.

And if they don't get the list to the NYSC secretariat, it means another batch of graduates would be added to the three already on the awaiting list. This does not auger well for an institution with such name and fame.

Parents have been made to continue to carter for children who ordinarily should have been serving or working somewhere. The psychological torture on the children themselves no doubt terribly affects their morale and erodes their self confidence.

Your Excellency please use your good office to intervene and sanitise the way things are done in RUST and let youths of the state go for the national service when they are supposed to. Let issues that affect the future of Rivers (and other) youth graduates of RUST be of concern to the lecturers and administrators of the institution. Thanks. God Bless Rivers State.

BENIBO GEORGE, 40B WOKE CLOSE, WOJI HOUSING ESTATE, PORT HARCOURT