By Victor Lewis
Distinguished Senator Ede Dafinone, representing Delta Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, has, for the umpteenth times, encouraged Urhobo who are in strategic offices and positions influence, both in public and private sectors, to take steps and create employment opportunities as well as contracts for Urhobo sons and daughters.
Dafinone gave this charge recently when he had a media parley with journalists from the Ughelli Correspondent chapel of Nigerian Union of Journalists, Ughelli, Delta State.
He urged Urhobo in positions to emulate Nigerians from other regions who are always desperate without fear or favour to secure good positions their people in public and private offices and departments, adding that Urhobo leaders must rise above the mentality of being second-class citizens.
“In the past, an Urhobo manager would go round begging colleagues from other regions to give him names for recruitment, as if he had no names of his own. That must change. If every Urhobo in office employs just two or three people every year, we will make serious progress in reducing unemployment among our youths,” he stated.
Senator Dafinone further disclosed that since he got elected to the Senate in 2023, he has been engaged in building a network of Urhobo sons and daughters working in government ministries, departments and agencies with a view of creating job opportunities and contracts for Urhobo who make themselves available.
According to him, he is holding his office as a Senator in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in trust for the Urhobo people who elected him to be in the National Assembly ostensibly to create opportunities for his Constituency.
“We are not second-class citizens in this country. If a DG or MD from another region is employing 100 people, he will take 90 from his own area. An Urhobo man should not feel afraid to employ 50 when given the same opportunity,” Dafinone emphasized.
“The office of the Senator representing Delta Central does not belong to me; it belongs to my people. The more I can share the instruments of power from my office, the closer we get to solving the problem of our young people. It should not be about me as an individual, but about all of us,” he stressed.
He lamented that hitherto, he used to insist on qualifications from those who seek for assistance from him, noting that he has learnt that what matters most in the struggle for opportunities is connections.
“At first, I would scrutinize every paper and tell people, ‘You can’t do this job, you’re not qualified.’ But I later found out that the person who eventually got the job also had no qualifications. He went there, hustled, and got it. So now, I give the letter and tell our people: go and hustle for it too. Not everyone will succeed, but some will, and that is the risk worth taking,” he said.
Earlier in their remarks, the duo, Chairman of the Ughelli Correspondents Chapel of NUJ, Comrade Sunday Apah and the state Financial Secretary of the Union, Elder Polycarp Orosevwotu, commended the Senator for deeming it necessary to brief the union on his activities in the Senate and pledged the union’s readiness to continue promoting his works.
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