Amidst millions of people who witnessed the 2nd Term inauguration of the Rivers State Governor ,Barr Nyesom Wike, and his speech focused on youths development and empowerment to encourage the youth to proudly earn their living and eventually be employers of labour and contribute to the development of their dear state than wasting their lives in behaviours that can result to their death.
The Governor has mapped out several ways his administration will help the youths achieve if they eventually accept the governor’s challenge.
Barr. Wike said that Rivers State has a vast agricultural potential largely untapped for many years back. It becomes imperative for the youths to embrace the green revolution and gain employment in this sector of economy for self sustenance and family upkeep.
According to the Governor, “for us therefore, it is about time we embraced the green revolution as a strategic measure for achieving economic diversification, job creation and food security for the state and our people, and we are just ready to do that.
“Our youths are our most valuable human assets and we believe that their destiny shouldn’t be defined by their circumstances or station in life”.
To this end the governor promised granting interest free loans to providing training, land preparation and logistical support to the willing youths to invest in commercial agriculture and allied businesses.
It is equally the governor’s promise to establish regional agricultural development belts in partnership with private firms to ensure commercial farming in cash crops and others and equally establish agro-allied industries and processing plants in all the belts.
To achieve this the governor said,“We will revive the school-to-land programme and leverage on the incentives from the Federal Government and the Central Bank to promote and sustain the development of agriculture across the value chain by our youths so that they can proudly earn their living, be employers of labour and contribute to the development of the state.
“Let me therefore reassure our young ones that we care about you, we feel your despair and frustrations, the poverty and the violence that continue to chew meaning out of your existence”.
The Governor promised he is going to dedicate much of the four years to youth development by tackling the challenges that always try to keep the youths behind, and made a promise to involve the youths in his government.
“As a straight point, we’ve resolved to give our youths some significance, provide viable economic opportunities to spark hopes of a better future in their eyes.
“Most importantly, we will continue to encourage, inspire, mentor and support our youths to believe in their abilities and to realize that they are and can be of much more value to society than the self-destructive traps and frills of the cults, the gangs and the guns.
“It is for our youths therefore to take on the challenges threatening their future by keying into the socio-economic opportunities we are providing to free yourselves from the shackles of despair to become responsible, passionate and progressive leaders of today and tomorrow and the builders of our state and communities”,Wike said.
it is believed that this Rivers State inaugural speech remains selective, encouraging down to earth and of course the best. It is a speech of hope for the youths, a speech of encouragement so that the youths of the state will feel challenged and believe in themselves. It is a speech for the youths to embrace peace and abandon their previous ways of cultism, killings, kidnappings and other vices as the governor has promised to give scholarships in all levels for those who want to further their education, and also to build up the football academy and others.
The Governor proudly said that his administration has made a significant progress in their plan to train 500 indigenous medical students on full scholarship at the Pamo University of Medical Sciences with 1200 students progressing with their studies in the past two years.
