Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
In a bid to curb crime, youth restiveness, cultism, prostitution and political thuggery caused by unemployment, Onitsha North Local Government area of Anambra State has mapped out plans to empower 5,000 youths of Onitsha through the skill acquisition and information and communication technology (ICT) programmes for residents of the city.
Chairman of the council, Mr. Patrick Agha Mba, made this known during the commencement of the skill acquisition programme for the first batch at Imeobi Umuezearoli, Onitsha. The programme was focused on fashion designing, tailoring, bead crafting of necklaces, wristlets, ringlets and traditional caps (okpu ozo).
Agha Mba said the Onitsha North Local Government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iykon Tailoring and Fashion Company, based in Aba, Abia State, as major partner in training of the youths, free of charge, within three months.
He said that the project was aimed at investing in human capital development to end poverty in the area, stressing that it was Governor Obiano who gave the council the enablement to attain the height in serving the people and uplifting the youths of the area.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank the governor of the state for his principles, actions and policies. You can see what is happening in the state where we have experienced serious development in terms of security and infrastructure. This setting up of the skill acquisition centre is line with the policy of the state government to key in the youths empowerment.
“The idea is to curb the unemployment being faced by the youths, because when you build the youths, you build the nation. The youths are 65 per cent of the population and whatever you are doing without the youths, you are not talking about the progress of the state or the nation at large. The essence of this is to bring to end poverty and reduce youth restiveness and make youths self-reliant. To end the spate of unemployment, you have to bring up entrepreneurship programmes.
“The beneficiaries can come from anywhere as far as they are residents of Onitsha North, whether indigenes or not. We have capacity for 26 persons for normal sewing machines and four persons for industrial machines, making it 30 persons. The duration of the programme is three months. We are targeting 5,000 youths to be empowered to give them complete package in skills and ICT, automobile training in the sense that, after the training, we will support them to start up on their own,” Agha Mba said.
He noted that those that qualified for the training were indigenes and residents of Onitsha North Local Government from ages of 25 to 55: “We have a platform where we disseminate information. We invite interested candidates to enrol, free of charge. We plan to have a complete package in the sense that, at end of the training, we give what we call backup to enable the person to start his or her own project.”
He commended the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe for providing building blocks for both the skill training and computer programmes. He said the Igwe was a youth-friendly king who had empowered many youths of Onitsha.
The council boss also said he had graduated the second batch of ICT students and so came up with the skill acquisition.
According to him, apart from the human capital development, the council had provided streetlights, which had brought back nightlife to the commercial city as well as scaring away criminals that operate at night.
Some of the participants such as Uju Nwanologu, Obiora Onukwuba and Judith Egbuniwe thanked the council boss for the opportunity to be part of the training aimed at making them self-employed and self-reliant.
They said the programmes have made the youths of Onitsha to remain focused and shun crime and other vices. They urged other council chairmen and corporate bodies, wealthy and kind individuals to emulate the gesture in order to move youths out of the streets.
The participants promised to impart the knowledge to other people to reduce the spate of unemployment in the city.