Cape Town –  A Niger Delta ex-militant was on Wednesday offered automatic employment in South Africa after  the successful completion of training in earth moving machine operation.

Amos Malumi was offered employment as a crane operator having undergone a six-month training at Wal Training School, Cape Town, South Africa.

Mr Michael Grant, Chief Executive, Summit Crane Hire of South Africa,  at the graduation ceremony of the 21 ex-militants in Cape Town said that Malumi was singled out for employment because of his maturity and understanding of crane operation.

“They all did very well in the six months of their training here, but my decision to offer Amos job here is due to his level of maturity and understanding of what it entails to be a good crane operator.

“His leadership quality is also part of the decision to employ him, all his colleagues respect him when it comes to decision making,’’ Grant said.

Grant noted that there were initial challenges when they started the training which was overcome by the trainees.

“They have done very well together as a group, initially there were difficulties for us understanding one another, but as the training progresses and we understood each other better.

“We realised that most of them have low skill and find it difficult to adjust to the new environment they find themselves, but we took it upon ourselves to give them other skills apart from crane operation. Now all of them can work on computers,’’ Grant said.

He added that the entire graduating students could compete with any of their peers from anywhere in the world.

“I must tell you that I am really impressed with their performance; it is surprising that they can operate 120 tonnes crane in six months, whereas most South African crane operators can only operate 80 tonnes.

“In crane operation, you can’t stop learning how to operate machines, to me this is the start of their career, they have a fantastic foundation here, we don’t accept second best, we have high standard here, so any of them can match their peer  from any part of the world,’’ Grant said.

He commended the Federal Government for empowering the students through acquisition of skills and urged other African countries to learn from this gesture as a means for poverty alleviation

“It is encouraging that Nigerian government is investing in her people. The skills they acquire here after  leaving their country are actually very good because it provides the opportunity to also learn about other people’s culture.

Malumi commended President Goodluck Jonathan for giving them the opportunity to acquire the skill.

“We all thank God for a successful six months training.

” Our appreciation also goes to the President and people of Nigeria for the privileges given us.

“What the government has done for us is highly commendable; we are given opportunity to have a second chance for a decent future.

“ With this training and exposure, I am sure none of us that had this opportunity will ever think of going back to the creek or engage in  crime,’’ Malumi said.

He, however, called on the government and private companies to provide job opportunities  for the trainees.

“My only appeal to the government is to provide us job, the government have spent a lot on acquisition of skill.

“ But we need jobs to put what we have leant to use and provide for our families. Government alone cannot provide job for the entire citizens and that is where the private companies should come in,’’ Malumi said.

The 21 Niger Delta ex-militants received training in mobile crane, folk lift, digger ladder and tower crane operation under the Federal Government Amnesty Programme.(NAN)

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Posted by admin on Nov 9 2011. Filed under Niger Delta. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry