AJM Searchlight
BARR. UCHENNA ORJI, EBONYI STATE COMMISSIONER FOR INFORMATION RESPONDS TO CRITICS, AS HE HIGHLIGHTS SOME SPECIAL PROGRAMMES EMBARKED ON BY GOV. UMAHI TO ENGAGE THE YOUTHS AND TO KEEP THEM BUSY
His Words:
The issue of youth restiveness is actually a national menace that requires collective national attention. In Ebonyi State, we have done quite a lot. The governor immediately after the ENDSARS protest, did a 7-day summit aimed to get the youths to air their grievances, their opinions, their recommendations that will make us move forward as a nation. The summit was tagged “Youth Engagement in National Development”. And thereafter, the governor in response to their recommendations launched N3billion EndSars Empowerment Programme.
That N3Billion Naira empowerment programme is in the basket. It is not only for the victims of the Endsars protest but also for the protesters themselves. It is for entrepreneurs, especially the youths and women. All you have to do is to do a bankable proposal. Once it passes the test by the financial institution concerned, you are sure to be a proud beneficiary of between N500,000, N1,000,000 to N2,000,000.
And I can tell you that so far, 200 people per local government have been shortlisted, that is 2,600 people to be beneficiaries of this empowerment programme. And I am sure that about 20 persons were already given N5,000,000 each and of course, some of them were those that couldn’t make it back to the executive council because they needed to go into business and I can tell that they are already doing business. So, again, let me mention that we have other packages.
The governor did introduce a talent hunt initiative under youths and sports and has regenerated sporting events in Ebonyi State in the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and that is playing some roles, that is, catching them young, discovering talents, and redirecting the focus of your youths, the women in various sporting events and that has also kept our people busy. During the summit, the resource persons were taken in the entertainment industry, security, and even in the academy, and those in the entertainment industry had to bring a proposal on how to tap into the potentials we have in tourism and in the creative industry to develop our youth. As I speak with you, very soon we are going to launch a programme on youth empowerment through the entertainment industry and creative industry that will have a lot of ripple effects in terms of creating jobs and creating wealth for the population. Now, you need to know that we have a vocational college. That vocational college is an institution created by this administration that is aimed at bringing on board all of these talented persons such as artisans, craftsmen, technicians, especially those of them who didn’t pass through the walls of tertiary institutions, getting them into the school, having them trained for a minimum of 2 years, or perhaps to 3 or 4 years, depending on the vocation or entrepreneurship programme and thereafter, they will be given certification – a certificate that will now empower them to access funds from CBN, from Bank of Industry.
Let me assure you that this is going to be an aspect that will get our people to be engaged. Let me also mention that education is also being launched, a creative education whereby we are looking at taking the women outside the streets, taking them back through what we call “Out of School Children’s Programme”. They are to receive counseling, free and compulsory education.
There was a launch of this programme for N7.5 Billion and it will also reduce street hawking in parts of Ebonyi and even outside the shores of Ebonyi State. The last time we came to Lagos, we empowered them with N130 Million at the sum of N250,000 each. Those people are already prospering with their families because we introduced what we call a street-to-skill empowerment programme. Of course, within the shores of the state, we also rolled out N750 Million and empowered 3,000 youths after training them in different entrepreneurship programme and I can tell you today that they have been taken away from the streets. We also did an empowerment programme for the poorest of the poor widows.
Today, we have rolled out and given out as a grant, the sum of N400,300,000 to the poorest of the poor widows. I can tell you that has enhanced school enrollment because when you empower the women, you have empowered the nation, you have empowered the children. You have even empowered the husbands and that is what is happening in Ebonyi State. I can also tell you that the civil servants are not left out in this.
We have four billion (Facility/loan) which they have already assessed completely. That loan is a single-digit loan that they are to pay over a number of years – a minimum of three years and a maximum of the time they are bowing out of service. That has made our civil servants to be more self-reliant under the programme that is called “Second Address”. The second Address means that even though you have white-collar jobs, you need to have green-collar jobs to make up for the job that you are doing as a civil servant.
That has also helped a lot. We have quite a lot of programmes that we have done, even for the clergy because we also attend to all classes of people – the clergy and the clerics. We rolled out N500,800,000 and gave it to 5,800 people with the sum of N100,000 per person.
We also considered the wives of security officials. In order to complement the efforts of their husbands who are working for us during the day and at night, the governor rolled out N80,600,000, that is N200,000 to 403 people who benefited, and today, these wives of these security officials are doing very well. But our emphasis is on agriculture because in agriculture, both the primary level, secondary and tertiary levels are doing a lot and that I believe will enhance food sufficiency and self-reliance as a people.
The governor is also targeting employing 5,000 youths and women; that is, civil service employment at the local government and state government levels. That recruitment is ongoing and that recruitment I can tell you by January, we’ll be rounding off and the 5,000 people will be recruited into civil service. Let me assure you that Ebonyi State is a concision site.
Anywhere you go, there is a concision going on. That is another form of employment and empowerment that is going on and we are targeting the non-skilled, the semi-skilled, and the skilled labour in this process. In all the local government areas, you see different kinds of projects scattered across the state. You see Ebonyi State indigenes working as engineers in road construction, engineers in flyover construction.
Today, we have not less than 13 flyovers making Ebonyi the highest after Lagos and Abuja. Today, we have the best network of roads, making us the next after Lagos and Abuja. Today, we are the first the construct roads with concrete pavements that lasts for a minimum of 50 years and it is our indigenes that have been doing that. Then we don’t have a capital flight at all because the indigenes, that is, those who are residents in Ebonyi, are the people doing the work. We have quite a lot of facilities created by the governor that empowers our people.
The international market has 5,000 shops that are housing our men and our women and they are doing very well now. The shopping mall is Africa’s biggest shopping mall and it is beautifully adorned. It was constructed with facilities such as lifts, escalators, CCTV cameras, and a car park taking about 50,000 vehicles at once. We also have medical centers that people are managing. This is meant to be driven by the private sector, that is, a place where we have corporate conferences and I can tell you that it is the most beautiful economical centre in Africa. I do not exaggerate. We also have an emerging international airport that provides not less than 10,000 jobs, which will empower our youths to go into importation and exportation.
We are training not less than 60,000 female youths to see how they can be proud millionaires. Africa’s biggest university of medical sciences is in Ebonyi State. We have given it over to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria because they have the best management and discipline that will give us all we need. All we have to do is to generate revenue and job creation through them and that will trigger job employment and wealth creation in Ebonyi State. I assure you that we are really emerging and we are very proud of that.
©️AfikpoJokwaMedia
AJM NEWS
Hotline/WhatsApp: 08103926517
AJM NEWS 