Following complaint over time by Nigerians over poor response by the federal government during emergency situation, the federal government has disclosed it would recruit more workers for the humanitarian Ministry. Although, the ministry revealed the employment would be like an Ad-hoc basis and will also double as part of the Federal Government’s commitment to reduce unemployment in the country.
Recall Vigil360 had last year reported that Nigeria is one among the tops countries with the highest rate of unemployment, and which was according to the statistics released by the World of Statistics.
According to the report, Nigeria led in unemployment rate with 33.3 per cent, and then followed by another African country, South Africa 32.9 per cent, and Iran 15.55 per cent.
The lowest rate of unemployment, according to the report, was in countries like Qatar: 0.1 per cent, Cambodia: 0.36 per cent, and Niger 0.5 per cent.
Also last month the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, reported that the unemployment rate among youth aged between the age of 15 to 24 years increased to 7.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2023.
The increase was 7.2 per cent having been at 6.9% in Q1 2023.m
However, when the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, paid the minister a courtesy visit, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu, revealed that the planned recruitment was to improve humanitarian response time.
In her statement, “As part of the New Year’s plans, the ministry will be hiring temporal Humanitarian aid workers and deploying them to every location where there are humanitarian crises going forward.
“This will not only reduce unemployment but will improve our response time and the quality of response going forward.
“These people will be hired for three months in the first instance, and if the crisis is protracted, they may be made to stay 6 months or one-year maximum.”
The minister explained that people with skills and experience working in humanitarian crisis situations will have greater advantages.
She added, “To improve on inclusiveness, members of the public who wish to apply may do so as a written application to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs or as an online application (portal link will be publicised by Monday). Application for the job is totally free.”
In his contribution, the Chief of Air Staff who spoke through the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Wapkerem Maigida, assured the minister that NAF personnel will support the ministry to move both humanitarian aid workers and relief materials to states and hinterlands where they are most needed.
Maigida added, “Beyond security, the Nigerian Airforce provides humanitarian support to communities working with relevant government MDAs.”