With More Youth Entrepreneurs, Nigeria Will Experience Peace, Says Okowa
- Youth empowerment is at the centre stage in the Okowa-led administration in the oil-rich Delta state
- Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has initiated several entrepreneurial schemes aimed at empowering youths in his domain
- The governor says the initiatives have helped keep the peace in the south-south state as young people are busy
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Asaba - Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has stated that with more youth entrepreneurs, Nigeria will know peace.
The governor made the comment recently when he received the chairman and members of the House of Representatives committee on tertiary education and services led by Rt. Hon. Aminu Suleiman, at Government House, Asaba.
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Keep them busy to keep the peace
He said his administration has employed the tactics in keeping the peace in the south-south state.
A statement sent to Legit.ng by the Delta state government quoted him as saying:
“The more youths we are meaningfully able to take out of poverty, the better for us. So, our type of programme is not just a youth empowerment programme, it's an entrepreneurial programme.
“We train them for both skills and mind; we empower them and monitor them very closely. We have had a reasonable success story, say about 70 percent at the moment; many of them are now standing on their own and even training others.”
Earlier, Suleiman had told the governor that his team was in the state in continuation of its oversight function, adding that oversight on the state of institutions of higher learning to enable them to discharge their duties with regards to appropriation.
Sustaining the new higher institutions in Delta
Meanwhile, in another statement to Legit.ng, the Delta state government on Wednesday, June 16 said it would seek public-private-partnership in the development of its three new universities.
The chairman of the Project Management Committee for the universities, Professor Patrick Muoboghare, disclosed this while presenting the committee's report to Governor Okowa at Government House, Asaba.
Muoboghare, who is the immediate past commissioner for higher education in the state, said that the committee which was inaugurated on Wednesday, April 7, sat for 32 days, concluding its work on Friday, June 4.
In a related development, Governor Okowa, on Thursday, June 17 called on the federal government to develop the permanent site of the Nigeria Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko in Warri southwest local government area of Delta state.
Okowa made the call while playing host to the chairman and members of the governing council of the university who paid him a courtesy visit at Government House, Asaba.
According to him, the call had become necessary as it would go a long way in putting the university on a sound footing that would ultimately enable it to deliver on its core mandate of imparting sound maritime-related education to its students.
Recall that Governor Okowa recently urged the federal government to re-direct fuel subsidy funds to healthcare and education services to touch the lives of poor Nigerians, saying that continued subsidy on oil amounted to supporting the rich at the expense of the poor.
Okowa made the call when he received the national executive committee of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria led by its president, Dr. Minnie Oseji, at Government House, Asaba on Thursday, June 10.
He said that the best way to attend to the very low people in the society was through their health and education needs, and reiterated that there was an urgent need to redeploy subsidy funds currently being used on petroleum products to the basic needs of poor Nigerians.
Governor Okowa had earlier said that for Nigeria to truly develop as a nation, there must be a partnership between government and the people, predicated on equity, fairness, and justice.
The governor stated this at a state banquet in honour of retiring chief judge of Delta state, Justice Marshal Umukoro, on Saturday night, May 22 in Government House, Asaba.
He said that in such partnership, consideration of equity and rights of all was paramount and that the people must be treated fairly and equitably in all dealings.
Source: Legit.ng
