Raphael Ede, Enugu
The Enugu State Government said as part of its deliberate policy to integrate the youths in the governance, it has appointed more than 1000 youths into political positions at the various levels of government in the state.
Commissioner for Youth and Sports in the state, Mr. Joseph Udedi, who revealed this, on Sunday during this year’s celebration of International Youths Day, at Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, also announced that the state government recently set up a committee headed by the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Cecilia Ezeilo to privatise moribund industries in the state in order to create more employment opportunities for the youths.
Giving the breakdown of the appointments, Udedi said that 600 youths were appointed Executive Assistants to the governor.
He also listed that 10 of 24 members of the state’s House of Assembly are youths, 200 Senior Special Assistants to the governor and that 70 percent of local government chairmen and councilors are youths.
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He further stated that the state government 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 Industrial Training Fund (ITF).
The commissioner stressed that all the empowerment programmes of the state were aimed at giving the youths enough opportunity to contribute to governance and nation building, noting that the theme of this year’s International Youth Day: ‘Creating Safe Space for Youths’ is apt.
“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,” he said.
In a remark, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Barr. Ngozi Henrietta , stated that creating space for the youth’s starts from the family, while enjoining 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.