Delta Decides
Former political aide to ex-Governor Senator Arthur Ifeanyi Okowa, Comrade JohnPaul Okonma, has called on Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevweri to prioritize making formal employment more lucrative and appealing than political appointments.
Okonma, who also serves as the Director-General of the Delta Integrity Group, made the call during a telephone chat with journalists.
Highlighting the state’s pressing economic hurdles, Okonma noted that unemployment remains a severe crisis, particularly affecting skilled and young graduates who are struggling to secure decent jobs.
According to him, the lack of viable career paths has forced many university grauates and technically trained youths into survivalist ventures, such as operating POS terminals, commercial tricycles (keke), and petty trading.
“Some are also drawn into internet fraud and other criminal activities because they see no credible path to economic independence,” Okonma warned.
Okonma criticized the growing reliance on political appointments, pointing out that they have increasingly become prioritized avenues for personal gain, influence, and privilege rather than service.
He asserted that this trend was unhealthy for the state and required urgent attention and correction.
He emphasized that a society cannot claim genuine development when its young graduates are left scrambling for scarce political appointments while skilled professionals are relegated to riding keke or running POS kiosks just to survive while frustrated youth resort to criminality.
Okonma stressed that these challenges were not isolated individual failures, but symptoms of a deeper structural weakness within the state’s economic system.
