Over 200,000 Plateau State Graduates are Unemployed

Plateau State House of Assembly Minority Leader and Chairman House Standing Committee on Labour and Security, Hon. Nanbol Listick has said over Two Hundred thousand (200,000) Plateau State graduates are unemployed.

The member made the revelation during the Committee interface with the newly inaugurated Chairman and members of the Plateau State Civil Service Commission at the Assembly complex on Tuesday.

According to him, data collected from an informal survey by civil society groups and other organizations shows that over 150,000 youths of the state who are graduates are jobless while another 50,000 are into some menial jobs earning below N50,000 naira monthly.

He informed the chairman and members of the commission that the purpose of the interface was to enable both the Committee and the Commission be on the same page in charting a way forward for the good of the state and the civil service system.

The Chairman of the Committee on Labour and Security urged them to look into the state workforce, as engaging the idle youths and with good working environment would to some extent ensure peace and security in the state.

Nanbol said the workforce of the state is grossly inadequate as some people have retired, some died while others have left the service for better offers elsewhere.

He said they should also look at issues of promotion of the civil servants and do it on merit basis.

He also charged the chairman of the commission and his team to look into the structure that is housing the commission and the working tools of the office as well as mobility for official functions with a view to improving them.

Hon. Listick appreciated the Chairman and members of the Commission. He reminded them that their appointments showed that the governor of the state has very high expectations of them revamping the state civil service. He assured them of the Assembly’s support for them to succeed in their new responsibility to ensure a well informed civil service in the state.

Responding, Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Paul Samani Wai thanked the Committee saying, the interface is a good move for a better understanding. He informed the Committee that the structural decay and the system need a complete overhaul for better service delivery.

The chairman also informed the Committee that they had met with the Secretary to the Government of State and they have given their position to the government, parts of which was the need for an ICT unit in the commission.

He revealed that the commission has only 2 functional computers and without single utility vehicle, dilapidated structure and furnitures with a meager overhead cost to run the commission.

Mr. Wai assured that with the assurance and expectations of the government on them, they will not fail but do their best to leave the commission better than they met it at the end of their tenure.