By Amos Odhe, Yenagoa
The Movement for the Survival of the Izon Ethnic Nationality in the Niger Delta, MOSIEND, has commenced free registration for all its members across the Niger Delta region, urging them to avail themselves of the online exercise which is starting on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
Our correspondent gathered that the NDDC’s Project Hope is designed to capture data of skilled, unskilled and unemployed youths from the Niger Delta region, in order to train and empower them to be independent.
MOSIEND, in a statement on Monday by its National Secretary, Amb. Amain Winston Cotterel, said the online registration in the NDDC portal is not meant for only Ijaw youths, but youths of all ethnic nationalities from the nine Niger Delta states.
The online registration exercise which is expected to last one week for each of the zones is billed for indigenes of Ibo, Isoko, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre, Efik and so on, he said, noting that MOSIEND is willing to register all of them as long as they are from the region.
Cotterel said the registration will first hold in Rivers State, being the Eastern Zone of the Ijaw nation, before it will be taken to Delta and Bayelsa states.
He said the registration centre for the Eastern Zone is the National Secretariat in Port Harcourt; asking “all MOSIENDIS to contact their zonal executives to get more information about the process.”
According to him, all youths of the Niger Delta interested in the exercise are expected to come with their credentials and every other information about themselves.
Cotterel said MOSIEND saw the imperativeness of doing the free registration for Niger Delta youths after a stakeholders meeting with the management of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, on tMay 7, 2024 with the stakeholders led by the national chairman of PANDEF, Senator Emmanuel Ibok Essien.
He stated that MOSIEND, as the strongest group with the largest number of youths in the region, is solidly behind the Project HOPE agenda of the commission, and that getting the youths to avail themselves and capturing their data free of charge is the least support it can give to the NDDC which, he said, is doing a good job.
Cotterel said, “MOSIEND is doing this advocacy and free registration of Niger Delta youths to support the management team in achieving the goals or aims and objectives of Project HOPE.”
Throwing more light on the project, the MOSIEND National Secretary said, “The NDDC’s Project Hope is designed to capture data of skilled, unskilled and unemployed youths from the Niger Delta region – in order to train and empower them to be independent.
“However, for you to partake in this project and benefit from it, you must register on the NDDC dedicated platform online, and that is why we are doing this campaign so that nobody would be left out. We desire all our youths to be productive and self-reliant and this is one way to achieve that.
“As you know, MOSIEND is a pan Niger Delta voice and we command the largest youth network in the Niger Delta, and we believe that by helping to spread this information and also doing the free registration, it will make the work easier for the NDDC, and the less unemployed youths we have in the region, the better and safer it will be for us.
“We believe in the development of our region both infrastructure wise and in human capacity, and that is why we have used our personal funds to make this dream a reality – instead of going to cafe to pay money for the service, and in order to avoid instances of failed registration or incomplete registration, MOSIEND has employed ICT experts to do it for all Niger Delta youths free of charge.
“No matter your political party, ethnicity or religion, as long as you are from the Niger Delta and you come to our registration centres, MOSIEND will register you free. Also help to share this information with those around you so that we can help to lift more youths from poverty,” he added.
