Over 2,000 jobs in view for youth in the far north

The Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi hinted that there are 2,000 jobs in view for the youth of Maroua and various areas affected by the current Boko Haram insurgency.

To stress the importance and significance of this government gesture, Mr. Djoumessi brought along with him two other cabinet colleagues – the Minister for Employment and Vocational Training, Mr. Zacharie Perevet and that of Public Contracts, Mr. Abba Sadou.

One readily sees in the presence of these other Ministers, the resolution and effectiveness to address the urgent employment problem – with regard to the Minister of Employment – and the effective implementation of planned projects, with regard to the presence of the Minister for Public Contracts.

Two thousand jobs may be too few if one considers the overall unemployment situation of the country and the daunting task of getting the youths jobs in order to ensure their better future. But the situation in the northern Regions of the country and, more especially in the Far-North is very disturbing because of the imposed war by the Boko Haram sect. Some of the sect members are believed to have set up shops in numerous villages and even urban centres in this part of the country.

The modus operandi of the sect is such that youths can never be stable with the presence of sect members and their violent mass killing. The majority of youth here are also anxious and live in perpetual fear each time their presence is signalled in a locality.

For understandable reasons, many youths have been forced to flee these areas to safer locations, creating a new situation of strife notable of which is the absence of employment or other sources of life sustenance.

For youths of school-going age, the situation is even worst because, in countless cases, schools have been destroyed with untold savagery, making school children flee as many who are already in school cannot attend classes and are living under terrible conditions. The problem is not only about attending school.

The insurgency of Boko Haram has come to aggravate the already bad situation of the socio-economic environment in this region.

In the past, many youths of the area due to the generalized apathy towards school chose informal jobs as transportation by motorbikes, itinerant trade and other forms of menial jobs usually at the borders over education. So with the advent of the Boko Haram problems it has hindered their activities.

Resultantly, many youths have either fled or have been lured into the sect by attractive offers, sometimes so generous that the choice to join them and eventually turn against the fatherland appeal to some people.

The government decision to provide these jobs is therefore, an appropriate and timely response to the situation created by Boko Haram, as an attractive alternative to encourage these unemployed youths to turn away from the offers of the Boko Haram sect.

The initiative, launched last Thursday is within the framework of the special programme for urban jobs and has every reason to deliver immediate results because it is pegged on two successful experiments carried out in Bandjoun and Bafia towns.

The 2000 jobs initiative is targeting about 20 localities with the first phase beginning in seven council areas (Maroua I, II and III, Kousseri, Mora, Mokolo and Mogode) with about 382 direct jobs envisaged and for which a total of some FCFA 554, 500, 000 will be injected into the local economy.

The target is unemployed youths who will have to take up jobs in labour-intensive activities such as urban road construction and repairs and other urban chores.

Even beyond being an appropriate response to the employment situation in this crisis context, the 2000 job initiative is expected to have a psychological effect as many youths will now see the effectiveness of a sedentary life and steer away from the informal activity they are so often attracted to.