A renowned environmentalist and Managing Director of Dexcom Solution Limited, Port Harcourt, Dr. Marvin Dekil, has urged Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State to give special attention to creation of employment for youths of the state as he settles down for his second term in office.

Dekil who made the call in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt suggested that the Amaechi administration should partner with foreign investors for the purpose of bringing in companies into the state to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.

This, he said, would go a long way to address the problem of youth restiveness in the state which he said was aggravated by the high level of unemployment.

He also noted that attracting productive and manufacturing companies into the state was equally capable of reducing the incidence of unemployment in the state, stressing that there was urgent need to train skilled manpower, as it would provide the needed skills for Rivers people to be gainfully employed in oil companies which abound in the state.

Dekil asserted that by training Rivers people in such a manner, the oil companies would no longer use lack of skilled manpower as an excuse to deny the people employment.

He, therefore, urged government officials to urgently visit the various oil companies in the state and ascertain existing vacancies with a view to allowing indigenes of the state to fill the quotas of such vacancies earmarked for them.

According to him, “if this is done, you will be surprised, how many of our youths will be employed in the companies.”

While commending President Goodluck Jonathan for his successful election, he said the only sure way of properly regulating the activities of oil companies in the Niger Delta area was the drafting of the right laws by experts and the review of compensation laws.

The payment of the right compensation, he said would go a long way to address the problem of poverty among the people of the Niger Delta.

Donatus Ebi