[GUARDIAN] The Onigegewura of Oworonshoki Kingdom, Olusegun Oludayo, has empowered indigent youths in the community in various vocational skills to reduce unemployment and their engagement in criminal activities.
According to him, the youths, who will be empowered with skills such as fashion designing, information technology, furniture manufacturing and others, are expected to be provided with necessary equipment to kick-start their businesses and become employers of labour in their communities after the training.
Besides the training scheme, he also doled out food items to over 150 widows in the community as part of efforts to eliminate hunger.
Oludayo, who is also a Rotarian, said he decided to mark his 55th birthday with this initiative, while stressing the need to arrest the increasing unemployment and youth restiveness across communities for meaningful development to take place in the country.
“A lot of youths are indigents and their parents cannot afford to train them, which is why I am using my birthday to touch some of these people’s life because Rotary thought us how to do good to people.
“We believe that by the time they are through with the training, it will be useful to them as a person and their families. They will start making money and indirectly we are trying to reduce unemployment within the community, which will reduce insecurity and this is going to lead to a better and greater society,” he said.
Commending the initiative, the Asiwaju of Oworonshoki Kingdom, Alhaji Tajudeen Ashiru, said the rate of unemployment in the society is alarming, which has led many to engage in criminal activities.
He said with this initiative, the youths in the community will be empowered with the various skills to be self-employed and self-reliant and in turn contribute meaningfully to the growth of the economy.
“Helping people out of poverty is great. I will advise affluential individuals in the society to emulate the gesture and ensure the youths are empowered to be self-employed so that they will lift their families and people around them out of poverty,” he advised.
The District Governor nominee of Rotary International District 9110, Rotn. Femi Adenekan, said empowering the less privileged in the society as well as providing them with the various skill acquisition tools is commendable as this will not only curb unemployment, but also break the cycle of poverty among the people in the community.
He, however, advised that Nigerians should take up the responsibility of impacting lives in their immediate communities in little ways as this will ensure a better society.