Governor Udom Emmanuel’s anointed successor, Pastor Umo Eno, has lamented the growing unemployment in Akwa Ibom State.
Eno said that the youth are hungry and something urgent must be done to remove them from the streets.
Eno, who is the Commissioner for Lands and Water Resources, is Governor Emmanuel’s preferred aspirant for the office of governor come 2023.
At a recent consultative meeting with local government chairmen in Uyo, the state capital, Eno decried a system that only allows a few to enjoy the largesse of government, while the youth wallow in penury.
He said: “I believe that this democracy can and should trickle down. If we don’t move our youths from the streets, we, the elites, will not have a place to stay.”
His comment received a lot of applause from the youth in the audience and even on social media, with many agreeing that the current system in the state was unfair to the ordinary citizens.
Eno insisted that Akwa Ibom youths were hungry, urging for a change of government prioritisation to include positive youth engagements.
He said: “Our youths are hungry. What they need is not handouts. What they need is job, job and job.”
The commissioner’s observation buttressed a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which rated Akwa Ibom State among states worse hit by unemployment.
The other states mentioned were Imo, Rivers, and Delta.
The NBS report had said despite being among states with the highest federal allocations and high internally generated revenue, Akwa Ibom youths were poorly catered for, hungry and highly unemployed.
In the NBS report, Imo State had the highest rate of unemployment in the country with 48.7 per cent, Akwa Ibom became second while Rivers State was third with 45.2 and 43.7 per cent, respectively.
Although, Akwa Ibom State government made frantic efforts to debunk the NBS report then, Umo Eno’s assertion is seen by some pundits as an indirect admission of government failure.
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