Monarch Tasks Youth On Self-Reliance

The Traditional Ruler of Nnewi, Igwe Kenneth Orizu, has urged youths to study agriculture-related courses in higher institutions of learning in order to be self-employed and self-reliant after graduation.

The monarch said this while receiving Comrade Chukwumaije Ikechukwu, the President, Nnewi Association for Agricultural Development (NAFAD), who paid a courtesy visit to the palace with gift of yam tubers.

Orizu noted that the high rate of unemployment and other vices involving youths in the country was alarming and urged parents to encourage their children to embrace agriculture, citing its numerous benefits.

Orizu, who is also the Grand-Patron, Anambra Traditional Rulers Council, urged governments at all levels to invest and support any youth or youth groups engaged in agriculture.

“We are blessed by God with vest agrarian land and good climate for agricultural production.’’

He suggested that governments at all levels should understudy the success factors of the 1950s and 1960s and follow the same path to create millions of jobs for idle youths.

“During the early 1960s, I was a big-time palm oil and plantain plantation owner, which the government of Dr. Michael Okpara of the Eastern Region then supported us with seedlings and paid us yearly salaries for maintaining our plantations. “It worked and there was much food as well as jobs for everyone; since I had to employ about six youths from Nnewi then to help me maintain the vast plantations, he remarked.

“And today, most of the land is still available but there is little incentive while the ones earmarked are diverted by some middlemen today. “For the youths still roaming the streets after many years in search for jobs; I would advise that they should bend down and look for what they could do within their neighbourhoods with the available land or other raw materials,’’ he said.

Earlier, Ikechukwu said that he was motivated to go into agriculture by his desire to impact directly on the society.

“I want to join the fight against hunger and ensure food security not only in Nnewi but the country as a whole as well as key into the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government.

“Yes, it is paying off; although it is slow but I believe that agriculture is growing especially with modern storage system; farmers would certainly be the major stakeholders in the society very soon.’’