Oyo govt restates commitment to youth empowerment

Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has restated the commitment of his administration to provision of adequate funding for sustainable programmes of action for youth development.Senator Ajimobi made the promise while speaking on the role of Oyo State in youth empowerment at this year's Kunle Adepeju Memorial Lecture, at the Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, last week.The governor, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo, disclosed that many youths had been gainfully employed by his administration and promised to collaborate with all stakeholders for the funding of youth activities.He said that the lecture which dealt with the issue of empowerment of Nigerian youth was important to the present administration, saying that the state was examining the National Youth Policy with a view to domesticating it.He said that the rights of youth, their obligations as well as that of the government, parents and guardians would be taken care of under the policy.The governor, according to a release signed by the deputy governor's Special Assistant on Media, Mr Sola Adegoke, lauded the students of the nation's premier University, for organising the programme and prayed that God Almighty would continue to console Kunle Adepeju's family.Earlier in his opening remark, the chairman of the occasion, Chief Gbolade Osinowo, had described late Kunle Adepeju as a man with cosmopolitan attitude who exhibited vision of a great leader but was cut down in his prime by the agents of the state.He lamented that the social malaise which Kunle Adepeju fought and died for had engulfed the whole nation and prayed for an end to the cycle of waste being experienced in the country.According to him, 'students are probably worse off today than in the late 60's as many can't afford tertiary education while more and more students died unnecessarily and unfortunately in the hands of the state agents'.Delivering his lecture titled; The Nigerian youth and the challenge of history, Dr Wale Okediran, a former member of the House of Representatives, attributed the dramatic rise in social unrest and crime in the country to youth unemployment rate of 56 per cent.He, however, commended Oyo State Government for according priority to youth empowerment and equally advised the present administration to explore the possibilities of setting up its own Independent Power Supply Project for accelerated socio-economic and technological development of the pace-setter state.
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