As a well-thought-out policy to initiate youth into the main stream of governance, Enugu State government at the weekend said over 1,000 youths have been appointed to various levels of government in the state.
The state Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Joseph Udedi, made this known during this year’s celebration of International Youths Day, at Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.
He said the state government recently set up a committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo, to privatize moribund industries in the state to create more employment opportunities for the young people.
Udedi who gave the breakdown of youths in political offices, also said that 600 youths were appointed Executive Assistants to the governor, adding that 10 out of 24 members of the state Assembly are youths, 200 Senior Special Assistants to the Governor, and that 70 percent of local government chairmen and councillors are youths.
He explained that the state government had equally employed 1,000 youths as traffic officers and another 1,000 youths as sanitation officers for the "Clean Enugu Project", while 3,000 youths were trained in various skill acquisition programmes in conjunction with the Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
He emphasized that it was the desire of the state government to see that youth of the state were economically independent, adding that in the area of education, the state governor recently awarded scholarship to 640 students to study engineering at the State Polytechnic, Iwolo; and another scholarship to 300 engineering students of Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu.
The commissioner described the theme of this year’s International Youth Day, "Creating Safe Space for Youths" as apt, stressing that all the empowerment programmes of the state were aimed at giving the youths enough opportunity to contribute to governance and nation building.
He said: "The essence is to build the capacity of youths; it’s time for youths to rise up to challenges of leadership in the country. They are leaders of today and tomorrow."
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Barr. Ngozi Henrietta Ani, noted that creating space for the youth starts from the family.
She advised parents to monitor their children while giving them sound moral and educational training.
In their separate remarks, the chairman of National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN), Enugu state chapter, Comrade Pascal Ugwu and the state secretary of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Chidi Ilegebe urged Nigerian youths to wake up and take their pride of place in the development of the country, even as they expressed gratitude to the state governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, for providing conducive space for youths in the state.
