By Godwin Adindu
There is music in the air. The music is youth regae. The drummers are youths. They are also dictating the tune. Barely three weeks ago, the youths marched out to the streets of Nigeria to demonstrate their dance, a very peaceful one, very well accepted by all.
But, in the midst of the frenzy of the symphony, the music turned sour and awful. Strange dancers joined in the dance and what was once a peaceful movement turned into a dance of blood and destruction.
Abia took a Centre stage. Aba became a threatre of the plebeians. For Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, it has been another challenging moment and another opportunity to demonstrate Statesmanship.
Apart from the committees set up by the Governor to address the issues of the protest, the Governor has also quickly ordered immediate restoration of some of the vandalized public facilities by relevant agencies to ensure Abians do not suffer for long because of the actions of the strange elements in Aba.
The Governor also addressed a group of stakeholders at a Townhall meeting and urged them to deploy everything within their powers to appeal to the youths to desist from wanton destruction of public and private properties.
But, there are key messages to the youth. One is that their actions of misdirected anger could threaten the fragile unity of the nation and Igbos stand to lose most if the country goes up in flames because of the dispersed habitation nature of Igbos.
Second is that his administration has run an inclusive government that has involved the youths. Sixty percent of his cabinet has been drawn from the youth. The LGA elections include youths in leadership. The Homeland Security Ministry was created with the aim of engaging the youths. The 300 security guards in the ministry are drawn from the youths.
The Governor established the Education for Employment (E4E) programme with the youths in mind. The 3,400 youths on the data base of the Agency are all Abia youths. His government has also made efforts to link Abia youths to the Federal Government social investment programme. The government has also got the youths to benefit from the various Skill Acquisition Programme.
All staff and workers employed by TIMASS are all youths.
From inception, the challenge of harnessing the talent of the Abia youths has remained a major preoccupation of the Governor. In the first 100 days of his administration in 2015, he launched the Youth for Agriculture Programme which saw 40 youths being trained at the Songhai Farms in Porto-Nov, Republic of Benin. It was a train-the-trainer Initiative in the entire agricultural value-chain.
Within the 100 days also, he launched the Made in Aba promotion campaign aimed at developing and projecting the creative talent of the Aba artisans and also embarked on the aggressive promotion of their products.
to be continued.
){kind=link}
0 Comments