Worker's Day With Abba Moro As Minister Is A Waste Of Time—HURIWA
A pro-democracy Non-Governmental Organization-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has upbraided the decision of President Good Luck Jonathan to allow the minister of interior remain in office several weeks after two dozen youthful job seekers were left to die in an ill-fated recruitment exercises staged by the ministry of Interior for the Nigerian Immigration Service [NIS].
In a media release signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Director of Media Affairs, Miss. Zainab Yusuf, to mark the year 2014 Worker's Day celebration, the Rights group said it amounted to empty rhetoric and celebration of the height of hypocrisy for the Nigerian Government to have rolled out the drums in commemoration of the May 1st events when the burning issue of the 'willful massacre' by agents of the Federal Government of dozens of young job seekers who turned up few weeks back for recruitment into the Nigerian Immigration Service under the direct supervision of the Minister of Interior Mr. Abba Moro has yet to be sufficiently treated and all the high profile indicted persons punished.
HURIWA said President Jonathan must prove Nigerians wrong that he is not keeping Mr. Abba Moro in office because he was brought into office courtesy of the recommendation of a powerful political god father and the current Senate President Mr. David Mark. "Mr. President must demonstrate to Nigerians that the rule of law is applicable to all persons irrespective of class or status by sacking the interior minister since the minister in question has publicly admitted responsibility for the unfortunate death during the unplanned recruitment exercises of scores of young Nigerians.
HURIWA has therefore asked President Jonathan to do the needful by not only sacking the minister of Interior Mr. Abba Moro but order his arrest and prosecution for the deaths that occurred at the recently disastrous recruitment exercise just as the Rights group has tasked the Government to pursue the issue of creating jobs for the teeming youth with vigour because according to it, the unprecedented level of youth unemployment is the greatest threat to national security.
The Rights group stated thus; "The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should stop this ongoing betrayal of the memories of all those young Nigerians who perished wantonly in the poorly organized job recruitment exercises characterized by organized scam of extortion of the potential job seekers who were forced to part with their precious N1000 each. Mr. President should sack the minister of Interior and ensure that these monies obtained by false pretenses by the Federal Ministry of Interior under the watchful eyes of Mr. Abba Moro are returned back to the last kobo to these job applicants. What is the essence of celebrating the Worker's Day when potential workers were wasted through the negligence of officials of the Federal Government?".
On strategies for addressing the issue of youth joblessness, HURIWA asked Government to declare a state of national emergency on employment even as the Federal Ministries of Labour, Youth and Women Affairs must be reorganized play effective roles in the creation of the enabling environment for the training of young Nigerians in different vocational skills and other areas of competences and entrepreneurial studies to make the millions of jobless Nigerian youth to become creators of jobs and not perpetual job seekers. HURIWA also wants the National Directorate of Employment reorganized with the right quality of managers appointed to effectively run that agency.