As part of efforts to address the needs of the teeming youth population of the State of Osun, the Governor of the State of Osun, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, has said his administration was putting structures in place to enhance the capacity and skills of youths.
Part of the structures in place, according to Oyetola, is the rehabilitation and development of nine Technical Centres across the State, out of which five have been developed and already delivering values to youths and other citizens group in terms of capacity building.
Oyetola, speaking during the visit of delegates from the Nigerian Next Level Forum led by Evangelist Oladosu Oladipo, the National Coordinator, said his administration has plans in place to incorporate the youthful population of the State of Osun into the State’s economic diversification agenda.
Oyetola said: “A lot of our youths are good, responsible and disciplined. But they are frustrated by the bottlenecks in the society. This explains the level of anger we have seen them display recently. What is important is for the government to be conscious of their needs in order to be able to address the challenges they are experiencing.
“In our own case in the State of Osun, we are launching a Youth Policy that focuses on Youth Education, Youth Empowerment, Youth Entrepreneurship, and Youth Engagement. We are also developing nine Technical Schools. We have successfully developed five, so we have four left. We want to build the capacity and skills of our youths towards making them contributors to the overall development of the society.
“We are also looking at other areas like Youth Agriculture. We are trying to clear up land for those who are interested in agriculture, and also see the possibilities of empowerong them with seedlings.
“In the area of mining, we are trying to encourage them to participate in mining. We are using one of our Technical Schools at Osu to train them on the different aspects of the trade.
“In the area of tourism, we have a lot of tourist attraction and that is another area we believe will generate job opportunities for the youths. We also want to have an ICT Hub for those in that line of business.
“All these are in addition to existing Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) which comfortably engages about 20,000 youths per session.
“It is important to also mention that what we are running is an all-inclusive participatory governance. So, we are not imposing any of the aforementioned on them, but we will allow them align with the area where they have capacity. We will only provide guidance through give them value orientation and reorientation where applicable”, Oyetola explained.
Earlier in his remark, the National Coordinator of the Nigerian Next Level Forum, Evangelist Oladosu Oladipo, commended Governor Oyetola’s model of governance in Osun, adding that the Nigerian Next Level Forum would like to borrow from the experience of the Governor and his vision for the State, to hold an economic summit in May 2021.
The Forum, according to Oladosu, is a nation-building engagemt that rests on 16 pillars, some of which include – Security Architecture (which he described as important to good governance), Agriculture and Agribusiness, Health, Youth Employment, Engagement and Development; Knowledge-Based Education, Value Reorientation, Patriotism, and other pillars.
Oladosu stated that the structure of responsible citizenry rests upon these pillars, adding that the Forum craves the support of the Government of the State of Osun.
