New Telegraph

Bamidele, SMEDAN empower 1,000 youths in Ekiti

Determined to tackle youths’ restiveness following scarce jobs unrest, Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele in partnership with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN had empowered no fewer than 1,000 youths in Ekiti State.

This took place through what he described as a well-designed training and empowerment policy for jobless youths in the state. Bamidele, an All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, said the incessant cases of banditry, robbery, kidnapping and killings being perpetrated by youths would be curtailed if leaders would focus on youth empowerment through vocational and entrepreneurial training. The APC chieftain spoke in Ado-Ekiti yesterday while rounding off a three-day vocational and entrepreneurial training for 1,000 jobless youth in his senatorial district.

Bamidele said the programme which was done in partnership with SMEDAN would enable the youths in his constituents spread their tentacles in the entrepreneurial world to combat incessant crime and poverty. Bamidele was represented by his Senior Legislative Aide, Mr. Bunmi Oguntuase. He said: “80 per cent of the crimes happening in Nigeria were as a result of joblessness among our youth and the government must place priority to resolving this. “The federal government is grappling with the issues of banditry in the Northwest, Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and kidnapping in the southwest.

All these are creating restiveness and destabilising the economy, because no investor will come to any environment that looks unsecure. “But with massive youth training and empowerment, some of these crises will automatically resolve without resorting to spending billions on amnesty programmes and other resolution mechanism.

“I have designed five empowerment programmes for my constituents because it is one of the key projects I have for them. In Ekiti, no viable factories and companies, what we are known for is Okada riding and we have to change the narratives. “This capacity building will take about 70 per cent off the streets of Ekiti because the APC led government of Ekiti is not also toying with its youth policy.”

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