Amina Mohammed: UN has job openings for young Nigerian graduates

UN deputy secretary-general, Amina Mohammed, says there are 37 career openings for young Nigerians under the United Nations bureaucracy.

Speaking at a cultural night organised by Nigerians working at the UN systems, Mohammed said the openings are available via the junior professional officers (JPO) programme.

NAN reports that JPO is a programme for the young people to be provided hands-on experience in multilateral technical co-operation at the UN.

Its 37 openings for Nigeria include one for each of the 36 states and the federal capital territory

Mohammed said although Nigeria has the opportunity to sponsor its youth through the JPO, the country has not seized the opportunity in a long while.

She urged older Nigerians to pave the way for the youth by creating opportunities for them when such arises.

“Whenever there are opportunities, try and pave the way for the young ones; you are getting old and we want to see the young ones in the system,” she said.

“We need to give the youth the opportunity because if we don’t give them the opportunities, they can easily fall victims of crimes.

“Home really does need us; there are leaders and we are trying with the professionals that we see in the United Nations.

“The work we need to do is not just to the world but also to remember that at the root of all that, you are only as good as where you come from.”

She further condemned the “alarming gender-based violence” in Nigeria which she said has increased in unprecedented dimensions.

She added: “So when I look back home and I see that there are women that are coming back from Boko Haram captivity, they come back with a type of violence that many, for the rest of their lives, can’t recover from.

“But I also see that what is worse is the kind of violence that is visited upon the young girl. She is indoctrinated and convinced to tie a bomb around her and blow it off; that’s violence against girls; that’s violence against women.

“But what I wanted to say was that as we look at the gender-based violence initiative that we put a spotlight on our own nation; we all have a part to play.

“I know we would spend some money in Nigeria on this initiative but we all have a part to play individually and collectively in trying to bring it to zero.”