Segun Awofadeji in Gombe
The Gombe State Governor, Mr. Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, has called on the federal government to expedite action towards the resuscitation of the rail line connecting the North and the Eastern corridor of the country, which he described as the most neglected.
Yahaya made the call when the Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Rukayyat Saraki, paid him a courtesy visit yesterday in Gombe ahead of the commissioning ceremony of the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT), Gombe Outreach Learning Centre in Kumo.
He noted that no reasonable manager of human resources can do without transportation because of its critical role in the movement of goods and services, adding that the Gombe outreach learning centre of the NITT in Kumo is a welcomed development for the people of the state and by extension, the North-east sub-region.
Yahaya observed that the centre would not only assist the youths in acquiring skills for the proper management of transportation in the zone, but would also help to equip them with relevant skills for self-employment, especially in such a time when jobs are hard to find by both the educated and the uneducated.
He said: “Recently we set up a portal to find out the numbers of the unemployed, believe you me I was shocked to realise that we have 4,752 unemployed graduates that registered, some of them have been unemployed for more than six years waiting for the white collar job. That is only for the graduates for you, 24 of them with first class honours and when we extended it to OND and NCE holders, within 24 hours more than 750 registered and I believe by now we should be counting thousands”.
He however expressed optimism that the NITT centre would provide a fertile ground for the teeming unemployed youths in the state to acquire skills that would benefit them in the future.
The governor informed the visiting minister that his administration is investing heavily in the transportation sector through its flagship programme, the Network Eleven-Hundred, which seeks to construct at least one hundred kilometres of roads in each of the eleven local government areas of the state.
However, Saraki told the governor that the state is strategic to the growth and development of the transportation sector in the North-east zone of the country and the role the NITT could play in providing the needed manpower for improving transport and logistics management operations in Gombe State and the entire zone.
She sought the support and patronage of the Gombe State Government towards the programmes and services the NITT, just as she craved the indulgence of Governor Yahaya to be the institute’s ambassador in the North-east.
