Delta State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chike Ogeah, got the rough side of Anioma youths on Friday when they booed and jeered at him until he was forced to end his speech at the Anioma Economic Summit, Asaba.
Ogeah had incurred the anger of the youths following his remarks that graduates these days were so deficient that they could not even write applications for job.
He spoke after some speakers at the event lamented that a lot of graduates these days were not employable, and suggested that they should no longer look for jobs but seek to become entrepreneurs.
But the commissioner decided to take the bashing a little further when he got up to speak. He said, “The issue is not whether the graduates are not employable. Graduates cannot even write application for jobs.”
As he repeated his assertion, many young people in the hall greeted him with jeers and boos. He try as much as he could to carry on with his speech, but the youths kept shouting him down.
The master of ceremony had to take over the microphone to call for calm. But the youths insisted the commissioner must apologise.
When Ogeah rose to speak again, he was further shouted down and he had to take his seat. The event was briefly disrupted and the compere called for a break.
Earlier, the Chairman of the organising committee of Oganihu Anioma, hosts of the summit said the summit was convened to bridge the gap between the rich natural potential of the nine local government areas of Anioma and the rich human resource base of the area.
One of the speakers, Mr. Gabriel Ogbechie, the chief executive officer of the Rainoil Group, said the youths have to move from having the mentality of job seekers to having a heart for starting their own businesses.
The immediate past Principal Secretary to the Governor of Delta State, Mr. Tony Obuh, said the people of Anioma need a leadership that can effectively harness the area’s rich natural and human potential.