Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has restated the need for cooperative societies in the country to follow global trends in their operations to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the national economy.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo, who spoke recently during a courtesy visit by the Former Legislators’ Wives Association (FLEWA) to his office in Government House, Yenagoa, described cooperative societies as strategic engines of growth and stabilisation of any economy.
The Deputy Governor opined that, apart from pooling resources together and sharing same among their members, cooperatives could do a lot more to impact society by investing in both profitable and non-profit making ventures.
He encouraged cooperatives in Bayelsa to imbibe global best practices by partnering government and other well-meaning organisations to invest in education and other areas of social capital.
While expressing appreciation to the women for supporting the re-election of the Governor and himself, Senator Ewhrudjakpo urged the Association to key into the policies and programmes of the Governor Diri-administration, especially those on women and youth empowerment.
He also called on FLEWA to take their public enlightenment programmes against drug addiction, cultism and other antisocial vices to the primary schools, which according to him, have become breeding grounds for such societal ills.

”Cooperatives, as far as I am concerned, are the engines of growth and stability of the economy. Most of the big economies and companies you see started off as cooperatives.

“The biggest football clubs in Europe were cooperatives that have become very mega investments.

“So, while I will really want to encourage you with your cooperative, I want you to have more than one area of focus. Our cooperatives should do more than contributing money for members in turns.

“We will match forward with our agenda, and expect you to match behind the state. I encourage you to come up with programmes that will help fight against cultism and other vices in our primary schools.

“Don’t always focus your enlightenment programmes on the secondary and tertiary learning institutions alone because our primary schools have become the breeding ground for all the vices we have mentioned here”, he said.

Speaking earlier, the President of FLEWA, Mrs. Margaret Boye Debekeme, said the goal of the association was to foster unity and collective development, through the pooling of resources for financial self-reliance.

Mrs Debekeme, who lauded the development strides of the present administration in the state, solicited the support of government for their programmes lined up for the year, including enlightenment campaign against cultism in schools.

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa