.. Fought insecurity through youth empowerment – Aide
From Ujah Simon, kadunae
Single men and women who were given money by government to marry in the past and were abandoned after the marriage ceremony, with no means of livelihoods, have again been empowered by Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara. State.
Special Adviser to Governor on Skills Acquisition, Hon. Amina Iliyasu who disclosed this in statement she issued also lauded the Governor’s zeal and commitments towards transforming the youths of the state through training on various trades and vocational skills.The gesture is to ensure that unemployed youth are empowered to fend for themselves and take care of their families, and to reduce incidents of armed banditry, Kidnapping, rape and other antisocial activities, which according to her were products of joblessness.
The statement made available to our correspondent in Kaduna on Sunday also stated that the gesture was aimed towards making the youth self-reliant, saying that the program has been designed to achieved its desired goals.
“This crimes have been drastically reduce to the minimum level under the vibrant leadership of Governor Matawalle”, she said, adding that the commencement of the programe, would uplift Zamfara youths by giving them a better livelihood.
The statment added that “Also married men and women who were abandoned in the past after given money to get married with no means of livelihoods, have been empowered by Governor Matawalle”, adding that, unemployed youth could now fend for themselves and take care of their families.
Also speaking on the kind gestures of the First Lady of the state, the Adviser said, those who were abandoned, especially the rural women have been given twenty thousand naira (#20,000) each, from the office of wife of the Governor, as empowerment to kick start small businesses to enhance a better living.
The Youth are not left out of this kind gesture as Zamfara Social Intervention Programme (ZASIP) empowerment scheme is also giving out ten thousand naira (#10,000) monthly to sustain themselves.
She said the Governor understood immediate and remote causes of insecurity, so set machineries in motion towards addressing the problems from the roots , adding that the Governor detested scratching problem from the surface and leaving it to manifest in future in a different or similar form.
She added that the Governor has made the return of over 25, 000 IDP’s caused by armed banditry to their homes which swelled up the number of unemployed youth across the 14 Local Government Areas of the state and necessitated the renovation of some Centers which gave room for world bank to have provided several equipments like Computers, tailoring machines, Knitting machines and many more in 8 centers to give room for full commencement of the Skill Acquisition program in the state.”We were at the threshold of almost losing it all due to bad leadership of previous administrations who did little to address governance based challenges in the state.
