Former Governor of Enugu State and Senator representing Enugu East in the Senate, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani has adduced reasons why Nigerian youths should see the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as their preferred option.
Senator Nnamani recalled that Tinubu, on assumption of office in 1999, embarked on series of sustainable policies towards addressing the high unemployment rate, sense of instability, and youth bulge that were unusual challenges for the class of 1999.
Nnamani in his series of tweets ; #citi_ BOY series, noted that “Lagos State at the period saw a significant influx of youths looking for better livelihood and Tinubu recognised that it would have been disastrous if left unattended, and therefore launched waves of reforms that re- invigorated the economy and ensured that the vast majority of the working population, who were primarily youths, were employed”.
Tinubu, he stated also established the Anti-Drug Misuse Campaign initiative to inform adolescents about the risks associated with illicit drugs use, pointing out that pervasive drug abuse epidemic had successfully destroyed many young people.
To further address the challenges, Nnamani said Lagos State under Tinubu distributed over one million Naira in grants to each of the registered voluntary youth organisations as tokens of appreciation for their helpful efforts at reorientation and to encourage them to be more productive.
“Tinubu also increased the annual funding for the rehabilitation agencies to over three million Naira and subsequently created youth centers so that people would participate in educational and recreational activities that would help them develop healthy self-esteem in a secure and well-supervised environment,” the Senator stated .
He added, “Tinubu’s administration spent 14 million and four million Naira, respectively, to renovate the Onikan Youth Centre on Lagos Island and the Akinwunmi Youth Centre in Ikeja while Recreational facilities that had been abandoned for years were renovated, and open areas were transformed into places where youths could unwind and express their creativity in healthy ways”.
Further adducing reasons to justify that Tinubu is Youth friendly , Nnamani pointed out that the Akowonjo open space received a total investment of seven million Naira, whereas the long-abandoned Igbogbo open space in Ikorodu was completely rehabilitated.
“Vocational training centers were developed by Tinubu’s administration in March 2003 to rehabilitate hoodlums, neighborhood boys, and the homeless who were desirous of making a turning point in their lives by economically empowering them through training in professions like carpentry, shoemaking, hair dressing and tie-and-dye”, the Senator stressed .
He recalled that the vocational centres project, which Tinubu launched in November 2005, also received the international millennium award for sustaining human development.
As part of Tinubu administration’s youth development initiative, he noted that youth self-employment training programmes and population education programes were launched, explaining that the major goal was to build powerful youth organisations that launched Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) that provided income for young people and also created and inspired many others.
In addition, Nnamani stated that a free education initiative for all Lagos State public schools was also introduced by Tinubu in 2000, which included free registration for the WAEC and NECO exams.
Tinubu, he noted, also “set up six job registration centers for all unemployed persons looking for meaningful employment or business opportunities. Along with that, he founded the LASU Information, Communication, and Technology Center (ICT).
“This welfare programme did not exclude the homeless nor illicit drug users. A total of over 300,000 of these Nigerians received succor in the Rehabilitation and Training Centre in Majidun, the Okooba Destitute Camp, and the Rehabilitation and Skills Acquisition Center in Tekunle Island”.
As governor, he said Tinubu provided small and medium-sized farmers in Lagos State with agricultural inputs valued at 150 million Naira through the Lagos State Agricultural Micro-credit Scheme in an effort to increase food production.
He said Tinubu continued by establishing additional state ministries, such as the ministry of youth and social development, to deal with issues specifically affecting young people which included the implementation of private sector involvement with various areas like refuse management, which added an extra 25,000 jobs.
In 1999, he stated that Tinubu launched a low-income housing programme for low- and middle-income earners with his confident commercial perspective as part of measures to ensured that families living in these residences had enough discretionary income after paying low rents to sustain themselves and ameliorate poverty.
