Eradiri  hails Otuaro, makes case for strategic educational programmes

Esther Eugene

Engr. Udengs Eradiri,

Former president of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has commended the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), High Chief (Dr.) Dennis Otuaro, for focusing on education and expanding the programme to accommodate more beneficiaries of the scholarship scheme.

Eradiri, a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), who delivered a keynote address at the recently concluded second edition of the Ijaw Media Conference, advocated for the training of students in specialized disciplines in order to build capacity for future opportunities and to reduce unemployment.

The Ijaw Media Conference, organised by the Ijaw Publishers’ Forum (IPF), with the theme, “Safeguarding Niger Delta Natural Resources for Future generations, held in Warri, Delta State.

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Delivering his keynote address at the Conference, he said, “We must give credit to all those who have led this programme to Otuaro. Otuaro, our own, is doing fantastic. Look at the number of people he has sent to schools, the local schools, over 3,000. He is focused on education and so we need to give him credit for it.

“However, I think that we need to be more strategic about the kind of educational programmes that we get involved in so that we don’t waste the opportunity and money we have,” he added.

According to the Bayelsa State activist cum politician, the people in the Niger Delta should utilise the opportunities that the amnesty programme presents to prepare the region for the future and this they can achieve by being strategic.

“So, in the opportunity we have, we need to be strategic about using it to achieve what we want. If Asiwaju can remove fuel subsidy, he can stop the amnesty programme.

“When we say strategic, if you go to the private jet sector in Nigeria, about 50% of pilots are Niger Delta boys who came out of the amnesty programme. The aircraft repair industry in Nigeria, we have a greater percentage of our boys who trained from here because the amnesty programme sends these boys to pilot school, to Lufthansa Institute in Germany, (the same place the entire world trains) so they are flying private.

“The point I’m making is that we must start to train people in areas where, immediately they come out, there is job creation.

“We have graduated a lot of Ph.Ds and Masters without jobs. If you train one person in Aberdeen for pipe repairs, you’ll be shocked at the number of graduates you may employ… Not when you send somebody to London to do Ph.D in philosophy. What is he going to do with it? The world has moved. There fore, we should also move.