Politics
Rep. Olumide Ojerinde, a member of the Federal House of Representatives, on Wednesday partnered with the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to train and empower 250 constituents with business starter packs in Oyo State.
Ojerinde, who is representing Irepo/Orelope/Olorunsogo Constituency made the distribution in Igboho, Orelope Local Government Area of the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the tools were distributed to farmers and artisans who were mainly women and youths, as the lawmaker’s 2019 Zonal Intervention Project.
In his speech, the lawmaker said that the empowerment was designed to encourage and give back to the youth and women.
Ojerinde explained that the training and empowerment was aimed at talents building, creative industry and pursuit of skills acquisition for improvements in livelihood.
“Any nation that ignores its youth population, does so at a very great risk, as it is the fastest way to eroding the lot of the immediate future generation.
“My representation believes very strongly in this teeming youth population.
“So much so that two major pillars of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan are human capital development and rapid industrialisation, through the promotion of enabling environment for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises,” he said.
He said that the training would ensure that the participants were equipped with the knowledge required for business success and offered skills; so that they could immediately move toward productivity.
“While we might not be able to provide funds to every deserving Nigerians during this particular conference, I am confident that many more initiatives like this will be implemented by this administration so that more young Nigerians can benefit as well, ‘’ Ojerinde said.
In his remarks, the Director-General of the NOA, Dr Garba Abari, said that the project by the National Assembly member was to drive development closer to the grassroots.
Abari, who was represented by his Special Assistant, Mr David Apoji, said constituency project was a model that the promoters had argued to be a way of giving tangible meaning to their representation at the National Assembly.
“It also gives the representatives of the people the required opportunity to identify infrastructure lapses in their domain for government intervention,” Abari said.
Meanwhile, Abari said the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) had been interrogating the process of location and implementation of constituency projects.
“This is where we are now for which the National Orientation Agency and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission are fully committed.
“It is our view that when communities take ownership of these projects, there will be genuine interest to preserve and protect them.
“It will also ensure that contractors, ever eager to maximise profits, execute the projects to the highest standards required,’’ he said.
Abari explained that community ownership would ensure that legislators and other officials of government were alerted when there was poor execution of these contracts and that they were also held accountable.
The Oyo State Coordinator of the agency, Mrs Dolapo Dosunmu, in her welcome address, said that the empowerment was well timed to build self-awareness and self -reliance of the people.
Dosunmu said she was delighted that Oyo State was marked to commence the nationwide community-centred implementation.
She also commended the facilitator for making efforts to identify the areas of needs of his constituency with a view to addressing them. (NAN)
– Dec. 19, 2019 @ 8:15 GMT
Tags: Federal lawmaker partners NOA to empower 250 constituents
