Buhari Lauds Aregbesola’s Commitment To Social Intervention Programmes
President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Osun state Governor Rauf Aregbesola for promoting policies and programmes designed to eradicate unemployment, poverty and hunger in the state.
He said Osun has been a model of social intervention programme in the country as some of its policies were adopted by the federal government.
Buhari, who made the statement in Osogbo, the Osun capital during an interactive session with some of the beneficiaries of the N-Power programme, said the state had proven its weights in building capacity for youths to thrive.
This was just as Osun disclosed that out of 200,000 unemployed youth that had been successfully engaged in the first batch of the N-Power nationwide, Osun came third after Lagos and Oyo states in terms of the population of the beneficiary.
The State’s Vocal Person on N-Power, Hon Idiat Babalola explained that 10,004 unemployed youths had successfully engaged in the state out of 400,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme nationwide.
The visit was part of the 3-day monitoring and evaluation tour to the state by the National N-Power team of the office of the Vice President.
The President who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Job Creation and Youth Empowerment, Mr. Afolabi Imoukhuede, said the flag-off of the monitoring and evaluation tour to Osun was in recognition of the state as pioneer of the idea behind the establishment of the N-Power programme.
President Buhari further explained that the flag-off of the tour in Osun was also in recognition of the successes recorded by the state through her Osun Youth Employment Scheme popularly called (OYES).
Addressing the volunteers at the Executive Council lounge of the Governor’s office, in Osogbo, Buhari acknowledged the leadership style of Governor Aregbesola for the machinery already set in motion to enhance the smooth running and success of the N-Power programme.
According to the President, out of 24,000 applicants that applied for the empowerment programme in Osun, over 10,000 unemployed youths ((both on graduate and non-graduate components) had been successfully engaged across the state on different specified areas like teaching, agro-economic and health.
He disclosed that the scheme was designed as part of effort to fulfill all his electioneering promises made to Nigerians.
Speaking on the success recorded so far, Buhari described the scheme as a helping-hand initiative designed to liberate the nation from abject poverty and hunger.
He said the intervention had made unprecedented success since its inauguration in eliminating poverty, unemployment and idleness most especially among the unemployed youths.
Buhari said the programme has also helped in promoting the spirit of self-dependence and self-reliance among Nigerian youth through which the beneficiaries would be exposed to technical skills, innovative skills and employable qualities needed in the labour market.
While assuring the volunteers of utmost competency and efficient management of the scheme, the President reiterated that all the technical challenges confronting some of the beneficiaries would soon be resolved.
In her welcome address, the Osun State Vocal Person of the N-Power, Hon. Idiat Babalola commended President Buhari for rescuing the nation from the scourge of unemployment.
Babalola, who described the initiative as a prototype of the youth empowerment programme already initiated by the Governor Rauf Aregbesola-led administration in Osun, said the adoption of the scheme by the federal government would go a long way to stimulate the nation’s economy and as well eradicate the challenges of unemployment in the country.
She said the N-Power was part of the President’s innovative ideology to set the country off poverty and encourage self-sustainability among Nigerian youths.
Babalola added that the scheme was initiated by the federal government as part of its social investment programmes to curtail youth restiveness having understood that “an idle hand is a devil’s workshop”.
She disclosed that out of 200, 000 unemployed youth that had been successfully engaged in the first batch of the N-Power nationwide, Osun came third after Lagos and Oyo states in terms of the population of the beneficiary.
Babalola explained that 10,004 unemployed youths had successfully engaged in the state out of 400,000 beneficiaries of the N-Power programme nationwide.
She encouraged the volunteers to see the scheme as an opportunity for them to contribute their own quota to national development, charged the beneficiaries to use the various opportunities of the scheme to acquire relevant entrepreneurship skills.
