It is a well known fact that 90% of the oil blocks in the Niger Delta are owned by Northerners and Westerners.

It is also a fact that 70% of the employees in the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region are Westerners.

These two factors, in my opinion berthed this new face of insurgency in the Niger Delta.

The modus operandi of the Avengers suggests they are truly Niger Delta graduates from Eastern Europe.

WHY SHOULD A GRADUATE BE INVOLVED IN THIS KIND OF SABOTAGE?

In as much as there are many lazy youth in the Delta, there are also a good number of hardworking youth willing to develop themselves but aren't given equal opportunity with their counterparts from other regions.

A few days ago, the photo of a Niger Delta lady carrying a placard bearing "I need a job...I am a Ph.D student" went viral.

Desperation and hunger can drive one into doing the unthinkable, as seen in her case. Who knows what these Avengers guys went through after returning from Eastern Europe in search of employment before they took to criminality.

Unfortunately a lot of young and vibrant egg-heads abound in the Delta who are denied equal opportunity with other applicants from particularly the West...simply because they are from the South South... and of course, the HR Managers of virtually all the IOCs in the Delta are from the West (fact).

HOW DID THE WEST OCCUPY ALL THE JUICY POSITIONS IN THE IOCS OPERATING IN THE DELTA?

It was simply the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme that they used in short-changing the Niger Deltans.

While Niger Deltans were sent far North and West to teach in Secondary School and its likes, those from the West and North were sent to the oil fields of the Niger Delta to serve. In other words, it was fashioned such that the Niger Deltans will go and give basic education to those that will in turn work in their oil fields...Chai! There is God!!

This trend continued since the inception of NYSC until it was stopped in Rivers State by Sir Dr. Peter Odili (1999 - 2007) who insisted that any corper coming to Rivers State must teach in Rivers schools too. I wish other Niger Delta governors did same.

Unfortunately the harm had already been done. Many corpers from the West and North who served in the Deltas between the 70s and 90s were retained in their places of primary assignments (IOCs) and they are now the senior managers in the IOCs and have been nepotically packaging and repackaging their children and even tribes men/women to succeed them. On the other hand, most of our Fathers from the Delta who were sent to serve in the North and West between the 70s and 90s only came back with the acquisition of vocabularies, they served in their respective state civil service and have retired in penury thereby making it impossible to provide for and manage their children and wards.

Today, those children are part of the menace to society.

Go to all the multinationals operating in the Delta, everday you see new hires (Permanent Staff) on daily basis with names like Shola Durotoye, Hakeem Awolisi, Segun Ogunlesi, etc recruited from Lagos and posted to Forcados, Escravos, Bonny, Qua IBoe, Omoku, Izombe, etc... No na, that's unfair!

Meanwhile graduates of Niger Delta extraction are given temporary hire contracts, cleaners and tea girls in same IOCs...that's a recipe for insurgency.

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR LASTING PEACE

My plea is, with the prevailing circumstance, the government should roll out employment policies to favour the geese that lays the golden egg.

Multinationals should also review their employment policies and offer 75% of the available employment openings to locals.

Nigerian Content should be "Local Content."

The Delta youth should be given a sense of belonging.

10% Host Community allawee should not be expunged from the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Hardworking youth in the region should be encouraged and not the Outlaws.

Rapid development of the region.

I rest my case.

This is true...

Let nysc be scrapped for crying out loud...

EasternActivist:
This is true...

Let nysc be scrapped for crying out loud...

I wholly agree.

Apart from ministers which is a constitutional matter that each state must produce 1,hw many other ppl has Buhari appointed from d SS and SE that feed d contraption called Nigeria?
INEC,Customs,NDLEA,DSS,EFCC and most other establishments are being headed by 1 alhaji or the other.

MyPWisINCORRECT:
It is a well known fact that 90% of the oil blocks in the Niger Delta are owned by Northerners and Westerners.

It is also a fact that 70% of the employees in the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region are Westerners.

These two factors, in my opinion berthed this new face of insurgency in the Niger Delta.

The modus operandi of the Avengers suggests they are truly Niger Delta graduates from Eastern Europe.

WHY SHOULD A GRADUATE BE INVOLVED IN THIS KIND OF SABOTAGE?

In as much as there are many lazy youth in the Delta, there are also a good number of hardworking youth willing to develop themselves but aren't given equal opportunity with their counterparts from other regions.

A few days ago, the photo of a Niger Delta lady carrying a placard bearing "I need a job...I am a Ph.D student" went viral.

Desperation and hunger can drive one into doing the unthinkable, as seen in her case. Who knows what these Avengers guys went through after returning from Eastern Europe in search of employment before they took to criminality.

Unfortunately a lot of young and vibrant egg-heads abound in the Delta who are denied equal opportunity with other applicants from particularly the West...simply because they are from the South South... and of course, the HR Managers of virtually all the IOCs in the Delta are from the West (fact).

HOW DID THE WEST OCCUPY ALL THE JUICY POSITIONS IN THE IOCS OPERATING IN THE DELTA?

It was simply the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme that they used in short-changing the Niger Deltans.

While Niger Deltans were sent far North and West to teach in Secondary School and its likes, those from the West and North were sent to the oil fields of the Niger Delta to serve. In other words, it was fashioned such that the Niger Deltans will go and give basic education to those that will in turn work in their oil fields...Chai! There is God!!

This trend continued since the inception of NYSC until it was stopped in Rivers State by Sir Dr. Peter Odili (1999 - 2007) who insisted that any corper coming to Rivers State must teach in Rivers schools too. I wish other Niger Delta governors did same.

Unfortunately the harm had already been done. Many corpers from the West and North who served in the Deltas between the 70s and 90s were retained in their places of primary assignments (IOCs) and they are now the senior managers in the IOCs and have been nepotically packaging and repackaging their children and even tribes men/women to succeed them. On the other hand, most of our Fathers from the Delta who were sent to serve in the North and West between the 70s and 90s only came back with the acquisition of vocabularies, they served in their respective state civil service and have retired in penury thereby making it impossible to provide for and manage their children and wards.

Today, those children are part of the menace to society.

Go to all the multinationals operating in the Delta, everday you see new hires (Permanent Staff) on daily basis with names like Shola Durotoye, Hakeem Awolisi, Segun Ogunlesi, etc recruited from Lagos and posted to Forcados, Escravos, Bonny, Qua IBoe, Omoku, Izombe, etc... No na, that's unfair!

Meanwhile graduates of Niger Delta extraction are given temporary hire contracts, cleaners and tea girls in same IOCs...that's a recipe for insurgency.

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR LASTING PEACE

My plea is, with the prevailing circumstance, the government should roll out employment policies to favour the geese that lays the golden egg.

Multinationals should also review their employment policies and offer 75% of the available employment openings to locals.

Nigerian Content should be "Local Content."

The Delta youth should be given a sense of belonging.

10% Host Community allawee should not be expunged from the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Hardworking youth in the region should be encouraged and not the Outlaws.

Rapid development of the region.

I rest my case.

I live and work in Port harcourt so I can dispute 90% of what you wrote here with facts and figure.

No 1...Is it only graduate from the West that are posted to Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom? What about those from the North, East, Middle Belt and even some who are indigenes of these any of these four Niger Delta States. The assertion that South West graduates dominate in the IOC because they are posted to serve in the Niger Delta is false because there are graduates from other Regions also been posted to the Niger Delta Region. Northerners are also posted to serve in the Niger Delta but you hardly could see a Northerner working with the IOC. Why?


No 2....I know most of these IOC (especially AGIP, TOTAL, MOBIL and CHEVRON) have openings for Host Communities. At least I have a lots of friends here who are beneficiaries even right from my days in Delta State down to my days here in Port harcourt..

No 3....As much there are hard working, brilliant and ambitious Niger Delta youth, I need to point out that those from Delta State and Akwa Ibom State stand out above the other two in terms of ambition, adventure, drive, hard work and resilience. Example: I once gate crashed a job test in Owerri, when I got to the test venue, I discovered most of the candidates were from Imo State, others are from other Eastern States while few others were from other parts of the Country. Organize a test and make it open for all to gate crash and make your observation of those who will come there to compete (write). Conduct this survey at different locations in Nigeria and my observation is this; most of those who will come for the test are predominantly from the locality where the test is conducted. Now make a case study here in Rivers State, I bet for every 100 candidates, the highest you can have from Rivers State is 10. I wrote a test here in Port harcourt, in which 35 of us were competing. Shock to say no single candidate is from Rivers State. I know this because I saw the list containing the names of candidates, School of Graduation, Scores and State of Origin.

No 4.... That the HR Personnel especially in the IOC is of a certain ethnic background does not give advantage to Candidate from that ethnic background because recruitment in the IOC has a process and these processes are usually not sanctioned by just one individual. Those who have passed through the recruitment processes in Companies like TOTAL, CHEVRON, SCHLUMBERGER, MOBIL and the likes can attest that merit is given priority. These Companies simply go fro the best!!! I may not be able to rule out a slight departure. But to a large extent, merit and performance is the criteria for selection. I know few guys who are brilliant and from the Niger Delta and have worked for more than one of these companies. Today is Schlumberger, next time this person is in Mobil and so on. Its Merit all the way.

Unemployment today is not peculiar to any tribe or region in Nigeria. It is a national challenge and should be considered as such.

On the issue of Oil block ownership, there has to be a review to correct the present skewness. This has become a moral burden.

jogojogo:


I live and work in Port harcourt so I can dispute 90% of what you wrote here with facts and figure.

No 1...Is it only graduate from the West that are posted to Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom? What about those from the North, East, Middle Belt and even some who are indigenes of these any of these four Niger Delta States. The assertion that South West graduates dominate in the IOC because they are posted to serve in the Niger Delta is false because there are graduates from other Regions also been posted to the Niger Delta Region. Northerners are also posted to serve in the Niger Delta but you hardly could see a Northerner working with the IOC. Why?


No 2....I know most of these IOC (especially AGIP, TOTAL, MOBIL and CHEVRON) have openings for Host Communities. At least I have a lots of friends here who are beneficiaries even right from my days in Delta State down to my days here in Port harcourt..

No 3....As much there are hard working, brilliant and ambitious Niger Delta youth, I need to point out that those from Delta State and Akwa Ibom State stand out above the other two in terms of ambition, adventure, drive, hard work and resilience. Example: I once gate crashed a job test in Owerri, when I got to the test venue, I discovered most of the candidates were from Imo State, others are from other Eastern States while few others were from other parts of the Country. Organize a test and make it open for all to gate crash and make your observation of those who will come there to compete (write). Conduct this survey at different locations in Nigeria and my observation is this; most of those who will come for the test are predominantly from the locality where the test is conducted. Now make a case study here in Rivers State, I bet for every 100 candidates, the highest you can have from Rivers State is 10. I wrote a test here in Port harcourt, in which 35 of us were competing. Shock to say no single candidate is from Rivers State. I know this because I saw the list containing the names of candidates, School of Graduation, Scores and State of Origin.

No 4.... That the HR Personnel especially in the IOC is of a certain ethnic background does not give advantage to Candidate from that ethnic background because recruitment in the IOC has a process and these processes are usually not sanctioned by just one individual. Those who have passed through the recruitment processes in Companies like TOTAL, CHEVRON, SCHLUMBERGER, MOBIL and the likes can attest that merit is given priority. These Companies simply go fro the best!!! I may not be able to rule out a slight departure. But to a large extent, merit and performance is the criteria for selection. I know few guys who are brilliant and from the Niger Delta and have worked for more than one of these companies. Today is Schlumberger, next time this person is in Mobil and so on. Its Merit all the way.

Unemployment today is not peculiar to any tribe or region in Nigeria. It is a national challenge and should be considered as such.

On the issue of Oil block ownership, there has to be a review to correct the present skewness. This has become a moral burden.

My friend, most of the multinationals in the Niger Delta are mainly staffed by Yorubas. Many of them came in via the NYSC route. In those days, while the Niger Deltans were ignorant, these guys made sure they did their national service in IOCs and got retained afterwards.

The same way the guys in the North have penchant for Federal Civil Service that is how the guys from the West have penchant for oil jobs down South. Till date, IOCs hardly shortlist Niger Deltans for these jobs that is why we now have resurgence of militancy by an educated class of the Deltans.

Forget "employ on merit" thingy... They've plot it such that as Father or Mother is retiring, Son or Daughter replaces him or her. Everyday you see new faces, check their names, all from the West.

MyPWisINCORRECT:


My friend, most of the multinationals in the Niger Delta are mainly staffed by Yorubas. Many of them came in via the NYSC route. In those days, while the Niger Deltans were ignorant, these guys made sure they did their national service in IOCs and got retained afterwards.

The same way the guys in the North have penchant for Federal Civil Service that is how the guys from the West have penchant for oil jobs down South. Till date, IOCs hardly shortlist Niger Deltans for these jobs that is why we now have resurgence of militancy by an educated class of the Deltans.

Forget "employ on merit" thingy... They've plot it such that as Father or Mother is retiring, Son or Daughter replaces him or her. Everyday you see new faces, check their names, all from the West.

Well your opinion.

MyPWisINCORRECT:
It is a well known fact that 90% of the oil blocks in the Niger Delta are owned by Northerners and Westerners.

It is also a fact that 70% of the employees in the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the Niger Delta region are Westerners.

These two factors, in my opinion berthed this new face of insurgency in the Niger Delta.

The modus operandi of the Avengers suggests they are truly Niger Delta graduates from Eastern Europe.

WHY SHOULD A GRADUATE BE INVOLVED IN THIS KIND OF SABOTAGE?

In as much as there are many lazy youth in the Delta, there are also a good number of hardworking youth willing to develop themselves but aren't given equal opportunity with their counterparts from other regions.

A few days ago, the photo of a Niger Delta lady carrying a placard bearing "I need a job...I am a Ph.D student" went viral.

Desperation and hunger can drive one into doing the unthinkable, as seen in her case. Who knows what these Avengers guys went through after returning from Eastern Europe in search of employment before they took to criminality.

Unfortunately a lot of young and vibrant egg-heads abound in the Delta who are denied equal opportunity with other applicants from particularly the West...simply because they are from the South South... and of course, the HR Managers of virtually all the IOCs in the Delta are from the West (fact).

HOW DID THE WEST OCCUPY ALL THE JUICY POSITIONS IN THE IOCS OPERATING IN THE DELTA?

It was simply the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme that they used in short-changing the Niger Deltans.

While Niger Deltans were sent far North and West to teach in Secondary School and its likes, those from the West and North were sent to the oil fields of the Niger Delta to serve. In other words, it was fashioned such that the Niger Deltans will go and give basic education to those that will in turn work in their oil fields...Chai! There is God!!

This trend continued since the inception of NYSC until it was stopped in Rivers State by Sir Dr. Peter Odili (1999 - 2007) who insisted that any corper coming to Rivers State must teach in Rivers schools too. I wish other Niger Delta governors did same.

Unfortunately the harm had already been done. Many corpers from the West and North who served in the Deltas between the 70s and 90s were retained in their places of primary assignments (IOCs) and they are now the senior managers in the IOCs and have been nepotically packaging and repackaging their children and even tribes men/women to succeed them. On the other hand, most of our Fathers from the Delta who were sent to serve in the North and West between the 70s and 90s only came back with the acquisition of vocabularies, they served in their respective state civil service and have retired in penury thereby making it impossible to provide for and manage their children and wards.

Today, those children are part of the menace to society.

Go to all the multinationals operating in the Delta, everday you see new hires (Permanent Staff) on daily basis with names like Shola Durotoye, Hakeem Awolisi, Segun Ogunlesi, etc recruited from Lagos and posted to Forcados, Escravos, Bonny, Qua IBoe, Omoku, Izombe, etc... No na, that's unfair!

Meanwhile graduates of Niger Delta extraction are given temporary hire contracts, cleaners and tea girls in same IOCs...that's a recipe for insurgency.

MY SUGGESTIONS FOR LASTING PEACE

My plea is, with the prevailing circumstance, the government should roll out employment policies to favour the geese that lays the golden egg.

Multinationals should also review their employment policies and offer 75% of the available employment openings to locals.

Nigerian Content should be "Local Content."

The Delta youth should be given a sense of belonging.

10% Host Community allawee should not be expunged from the Petroleum Industry Bill.

Hardworking youth in the region should be encouraged and not the Outlaws.

Rapid development of the region.

I rest my case.

when you were arranging your exams e de sweet una.una dey form sharp man.now wey una gats go merit based company una de complain.abi you think ioc na federal gwament wen go hire you to pour sand in their garri ne?