Minister Assures On Youth Dev In N’Delta

Minister of State, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Hon. Samuel Ode, has said that the Federal Government would continue to invest in youth development through capacity building programmes.

Ode gave the assurance during the graduation ceremony of 50 non-militant youths of Niger Delta origin at Joemarine Institute of Nautical Studies and Research, Warri, Delta State, under the skills acquisition and training programme of the Ministry.

The Minister of State stated that the graduation of the youths was an epoch-making event as the Ministry was graduating the last set of 50 youths from the Institute.  He called on the graduating students to make good use of the knowledge garnered during the training to justify the huge investment of the Federal Government on them.

Ode said that his ministry was working closely with the private sector particularly those located in the Niger Delta region on how some of the youths could be offered gainful employment.

According to him, the ministry was also finalising arrangements to commence a micro-finance scheme that would enable all the Ministry’s trainees, cooperative societies and individuals in the Niger Delta region to access soft loans either to start-off or finance their businesses.

He said that the ministry would distribute a laptop computer each to all the 595 trainees participating in the various skills acquisition training programmes of the Ministry’s three key sectors of agriculture, maritime and oil & gas as well as the 92 trainees who have completed their trainings in Galilee, Israel and Port Novo, Republic of Benin to enhance their ICT skills.

While commending the management of Joemarine Institute of Nautical Studies and Research for impacting quality skills on the students and keeping faith with the terms of the contract, the Minister of State promised that the institute would be one of the several private investors that the Ministry would continue to partner with as far as the training programmes of the Ministry were concerned.

Speaking earlier at the palace of the Ovie of Uvwie, HRM Sideso JP, the Minister of State had commended the Ovie for assisting the government in ensuring peaceful free and fair elections in his domain. He therefore promised a 100 KVA standby generator to enhance electricity supply in his domain.

Responding, the Ovie praised the Ministers for their untiring efforts in piloting the affairs of the Ministry as well as educating and empowering the Niger Delta youths.  The monarch believed that “once the youths are properly educated and empowered, peace would reign.   He called on the Federal Government to address the challenges of poor funding of the University of Petroleum Technology Resources, Effurun and the deplorable condition of the access road of the university.

The Director of the institute, Joel O. Epidei and the representative of the students, Kanbofa Party praised the Federal Government for creating the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs. They called on the Federal Government to make conscientious efforts to assist the Ministry’s trainees secure employment in their field of study to ensure that the huge financial investment on capacity building would not be in vain.

Justus Awaji, Abuja

Former South African President, Thabo Mbeki (left) and former Nigerian Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington D.C after a consultative meeting of the AU Special Panel for Sudan, recently.