It is worrisome to note that the ongoing recruitment exercise into the Delta State Civil Service has seriously assumed a dishonourable dimension as job racketeers traceable to some of the officials of the state government are on the prowl to shortchange and swindle unsuspecting and indigent job seekers who are desperate to secure a job.
Information gathered from a dependable source in the states civil service commission reveals that the dubious job racketeers demand as much as N200,000.00 or more from their clients to secure a job for them in the state civil service. It is more devastating to recall that sometimes, these job racketeers would succeed in swindling poor unemployed Deltans without providing any job for them.
Suffice to say that this unwholesome development has cast serious doubt on the transparency of the employment exercise as many Deltans have lost confidence on the authorities saddled with the responsibility to conduct the recruitment exercise.
It would be recalled that in the previous employment exercise in the Delta State Civil Service Commission, incidence of fraud and other sharp practices were common factors that reduced the exercise to a cesspool of corruption.
Most disturbing about the ugly scenario is the fact that in the face of glaring display of corrupt practices by some of those entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the employment process runs smoothly, Delta State Government prefers to play the ostrich, thus, creating the fertile ground for rabid corruption to fester in the system.
It would be recalled that unemployment is posing serious challenge to the Government of Delta State with no practical or workable plan whatsoever to tackle the problem headlong. Every year, thousands of young Deltans graduate from tertiary institutions only to be recruited into the labour market were endless wait for a job has become a recurring decimal.
It is pertinent to note that the present state of unemployment in the state is undeniably getting worse by the day as teeming youths roam the streets in search of non available jobs. Worst still, those at the corridors of power often seem not to be bothered about the deleterious and hopeless situation the less privileged Deltans contend with every day.
No doubt, many Deltans would agree with the fact that billions of Naira of the state's fund could be traced to private pockets of political office holders, top ranked civil servants including other principal officers whose identities and offices are very well conspicuous and known to the general public.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the poverty level of the citizens of Delta State has assumed a calamitous proportion so much to the fact that if urgent measures are not taken by the government of Delta State to cushion the excruciating pains it unleashes on the people, the consequence may be too disastrous for the government to contain.
Delta State, to say the least, is a rich state on account of it being an oil producing state. To buttress this claim is the 2015 budget of the state, which is about N345 billion. Having this fact in public domain, it behoves the governor of Delta state and the team of his lieutenants to retool their policies so as to accommodate and assuage the yearnings of the people.
It would be a perfect paradoxical to say that a young graduate of oil rich Delta State who roams the streets of Asaba and Warri for a decade without a job, but when he had an opportunity to apply for a job opening in the state's civil service, while in his poor and pitiable state, he would be subjected to cough up a whooping sum of N200 thousand or more as a precondition for getting the job. This is quite humiliating, outrageous, demonic, and unpatriotic. Where would an unemployed young man get that huge sum of money to facilitate his employment? What a bold act of malfeasance in the Delta State public institutions.
It is expected that the governor of Delta State, His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan would constitute a team of investigators with clean hands to vet the ongoing recruitment exercise in the civil service so as to purging the system of evil men and women or 'system men' who will stop at nothing to rubbish the government at any slightest opportunity.
The question on the lips of Deltans is: "What is the responsibility of the government of Delta State to the good people of the state, if they are constantly denied the right to secure job on merit in the state's civil service." It is high time the state governor nipped this shameful practice in the bud. Deltans are suffering too much in the midst of plenty. May God hear the cry of the oppressed and economic brutalized Deltans, amen.
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