Governor Seriake Henry Dickson of Bayelsa State on Saturday announced the enlistment in a youth empowerment programme of 10,000 of the 11,000 youths who reportedly renounced cultism to bewilderment of the public and observers of political developments in the oil-rich state.
The governor, who was speaking at an elaborate ceremony at the Banquet Hall in Yenagoa, said he had set aside N1 billion for the programmes to ensure the ex-cultists become self-reliant.
“If we do not help to build you all, then our future will not be assured,” he told them. “You are all aware of what our Restoration Government is doing; building schools, roads, hospitals, investing in security and making our state safe, talking to people to come here to invest so that we can create jobs for you.
“All of these will come to nothing, if we don’t help to equip you with the skills that you need to partake in the economy to protect our future.”
Basking in the euphoria of the moment, the Governor promised that the exercise is just the beginning and that his team will conduct a meticulous verification exercise to select the 10,000 beneficiaries, local government by local government.
“When we are through with all of these, we are going to engage you in a special youth empowerment programme. A total of 10,000 youths will be engaged” Dickson said.
It was however learnt that Dickson was sold the idea in preparation for the 2015 general elections as well as his re-election bid in 2016.
According to a resident, “This is just an exercise to worsen the spate of violence, we all know the history of militancy, the initial cache of arms they used were remnants from election duties and that was what took us to where we are today. It is rather unfortunate that we are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder by this policy of government. Let them wake up if they are dreaming.”
No comments:
Post a Comment