The immediate past Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Ihenacho, has re-instated that he was not a military captain but a ship captain and mariner that navigated ships round the world when he was a youth.
The Emekuku-Owerri born oil magnate made this remark recently while addressing the people of Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta/Oru West Federal Constituency at Oguta town during the inauguration of Captain Ihenacho Campaign Organisation (CICO) in the federal Constituency.
The ex-minister who used the occasion to share part of his experience on youth unemployment when he was a minister had this to say:
‘When I was the country’s Minister of Interior, I used that little opportunity to employ thousands of Imo youths in many federal establishments. But unfortunately, I noticed that each time I helped one person to secure a job, there were more than 10 unemployed Imo youths more qualified looking for the same job. Ironically, in about 4 years, Late Sam Mbakwe created up to 34 industries in Imo State. But more than 15 years after he left office, none of those industries existed again. None of his successors maintained the industries or built even one. Why then wouldn’t there be mass unemployment. The cause is that we have had leaders who do not have the vision to prepare Imo State for the rainy day. What all his successors have been doing is to share federal allocation and nothing more. No programme for industries that will employ our youths. What will happen if crude oil is no longer bringing income to Nigeria? Therefore, my priority is an industrialized Imo State that can be self subsistent and less dependent on federal allocation which will invariably, put the people back to work. I mean real work that can make the people live meaningfully and raise their own families without stress.
Speaking further, the Chairman and Chief Executive of Genesis Shipping Line termed as improper the idea of paying an Imo graduate =N=20,000 as salary in the name of job employment in the public service and also opined that the curriculum in the educational system of the state should also be structured in a way that it would get people meaningful jobs immediately after graduation.
In his own speech earlier at the event, the President General of Ohaji/Egbema/Oguta Students Union Comrade Adizua Chuks described the Ex-Minister as an honest, mature and experienced man and thanked him for providing jobs for the people of the area when he was a minister and relief materials to the area during the last flood disaster in Oguta.
