By Admin
Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq was on Wednesday 16th of December, 2020 challenged the youth in the state to always come up with bankable ideas to move the state forward.
The Governor thrown the challenge at the TownHall meeting of the Northern State Governors Forum, Committee on “Youth Engagement, Priorities and Inclusion in Governance” held at Kwara Hotel, Ilorin.
The meeting which held under the auspices of Mrs Kaosarah AbdulRazaq Adeyi, only female member of the Committee had in attendance the selected youths across the sixteen Local Government Areas in the state.
In his remarks, Governor AbdulRazaq said “Our administration has prioritised youth inclusion in the scheme of things. And for the first time, we have mainstreamed gender inclusion by giving the highest number of appointments to women in the cabinet, ministries, and key parastals”
“We have designed a couple of initiatives that are targeted at youths and women, while investments are being made in the education sector to raise the literacy bar of Kwarans. The upcoming innovation hub, the Visual Arts Centre, the proposed Kwapreneur, and the Digital Kwara are a few examples of such initiatives”
“I believe that this town hall meeting is largely representative of Kwarans. It is hoped that this event will help to harvest sustainable solutions to the myriads of challenges holding us back as a people”
“I urge Kwara youth to stand up for what is right at all time without giving in to violence”
“I assure you that we shall always prioritise development over sentiment. We shall continue to provide an enabling environment for ideas to thrive and welcome suggestions and solutions that will drive sustainable growth”
In her earlier opening speech, Mrs Kaosarah AbdulRazaq Adeyi, who is a representative of Kwara State in the Committee said, the initiative of the TownHall meeting came up as part of the efforts of the Northern States Governors and Leaders to address numerous challenges facing the youths and as well pave ways for the youth to be part of governance.
“This gathering of intellectual youth across the sixteen Local Government Areas in the state is to chart workable solution to various challenges youth are facing in the country, ranging for unemployment, non inclusion in governance and many more”
Speaking at the event Dr. Amina Hameed, who spoke on youth inclusion in governance, applauded kwara state government for being above their contemporaries in area of youth inclusion in governance, said” we have to count kwara youth lucky for having 80% at the State House of Assembly and reasonable numbers at the Executive arm of government too. She however made case for the people with disabilities and urged the state government to extend the opportunity to those set of people and all other ones in that category too”
Another speaker, Mr. Kehinde Yusuf, who spoke on accurate data on the part of government in order to make proper plan for the youth, said “empowering youth is the only reliable way out of youth restiveness and this can be successfully achieved through accurate data, stressed that no society can grow economically by only sharing free money to its jobless citizens. He, however charged government at all level on sustainable empowerment for its teeming youth”
Another speaker, Mrs Rukayat Yahaya, who spoke on youth inclusion in governance, challenged the lucky youth in government to realize that leadership is not about the title or designation but, impact one is making on the people and community.