Checking Insecurity Through Youth Empowerment

Participants of the Abia Youth Empowerment Summit (A-YES), which was recently held in Umuahia, underscored the need for government to give priority to youth empowerment programmes.

They attributed the high crime rate in the country to unemployment, adding that youth empowerment was the panacea to the rising wave of insecurity.

The CBN Governor, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who delivered a lecture at the summit, said that active participation of youths in economic activities would facilitate the reduction of crime in the country.

In his lecture titled, “Youth Empowerment as Panacea for Insecurity in Nigeria’’, Sanusi said that governments at all levels were not investing adequately in youth empowerment programmes.

He said that this had resulted in breeding an army of youths that were engaged in unprofitable activities.

“The aggregate of individual insecurity, which can be either financial, job, marital, economic, and psychological or a sum of them, translate into overall insecurity in the society when they are not adequately addressed,’’ he said.

The CBN governor also bemoaned the increasing rate of unemployment in the country.

“ Unemployment rose from 15 per cent in the period between 2002 and 2008, to over 20 per cent in the period between 2009 and 2011,’’ he said.

Also speaking, Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia said that the introduction of the youth empowerment programme by his administration was a direct response to the confessional statements made by some repentant kidnappers who terrorised Abia residents between 2009 and 2010.

“Conscious of the positive and negative roles which youths play in the society, it is imperative for the youth to be integrated in the politics, development, security and total emancipation of the nation,’’ he said.

Orji said that the N1 billion agricultural loan given by the CBN to farmers was disbursed in such a way that it particularly favoured youths participating in agricultural activities.

He said that the state government had commenced the development of its “Liberation Farms’’ across the state’s 17 local government areas, adding that the farms would provide employment opportunities for young farmers and entrepreneurs.

Orji, however, advised commercial township taxi and commercial tricycle operators, as well as others who had benefitted from the government’s empowerment programme, not to sell their means of livelihood.

Two hundred vehicles and 700 tricycles were given out to beneficiaries of the programme.

Former Senate President Adolphus Wabara, who chaired the summit, commended the governor for embarking on youth empowerment programmes.

He stressed that the youth empowerment programmes would facilitate the growth of the state’s economy and the national economy.

“By focusing on youth empowerment, the governor has planted a veritable seed to cure many social malaise and address the economic needs of the state; posterity will always remember that as part of his legacies,’’ Wabara said.

Sharing similar sentiments, Mr Hyacinth Okoli, the NUJ Chairman in Abia, commended Orji for initiating the youth empowerment programme, adding that it had helped to reduce kidnapping and other crimes in the state.

He noted that kidnapping was so rampant in the state a couple of years ago.

“On July 10, 2010, four journalists and their driver were kidnapped while returning to their destinations after attending the NUJ’s national executive council meeting in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

“While that was being sorted out, 15 innocent school children were kidnapped in September, 2010,’’ he noted.

Chief Sam Onuigbo, the Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, said that apart from giving support to individual beneficiaries, the youth empowerment programme would also boost the state’s Gross Domestic Product (GPD).

“The beneficiaries of the empowerment programme, apart from making money to take care of themselves; will equally pay tax and other levies, which will boost the government’s Internally Generated Revenue,’’ he said.

Onuigbo said that the overall gains of the youth empowerment were enormous, urging other states to emulate the Abia model in their efforts to tackle the menace of unemployment and insecurity.

“The integrated approach of empowering the youths in areas of agriculture, transportation, commerce and skills’ acquisition was a veritable means of addressing unemployment, which is now breeding insecurity across Nigeria,’’ he said.

Messrs Uzoma Ibe and Emmanuel Chukwuemeka, both beneficiaries of the youth empowerment programme, commended the governor for initiating the empowerment scheme.

“Since my graduation from the Abia State University eight years ago, I have been without a job. I found it extremely difficult to cope without any means of livelihood.

“With this vehicle I received as an empowerment tool, I feel revived morally and economically. With God on my side, I now have a foundation to make progress as a man,’’ Ibe said.

Other speakers at the summit commended the state government for introducing the youth empowerment programme, reiterating that it would boost employment and check the rising crime rate in the state.

They, however, urged the government to sustain the programme to enable more youths to benefit.

Observers also commend the government for introducing the programme but they urge the beneficiaries to ensure the fulfilment of the programme.

They also advise those who were given taxis and tricycles to handle their vehicles with care, while refraining from having the erroneous notion that the government’s gesture is their own share of the national cake.

Onyeukwu writes for NAN

Francis Onyeukwu