MINISTER TO REVIVE ABANDONED YOUTH CENTRES
Oru Leonard
As part of efforts to empower Nigerian Youth, plans have been concluded for the revival of abandoned youth development centres across the country.
Minister of Youth and Sports Development in Nigeria, Mr Sunday Dare who paid a surprise visit to the abandoned youth development centre at Onla village in Ibadan on Tuesday promised to turn the centre into a wealth creator for the empowerment of youths.
” Our youths must be encouraged to become employers of labour and entrepreneurs. This place would be revived and turned into training centre and farm settlement for youths interested in farming. They will be supported with loans and tractors so that they can be productive”
Mr. Dare lamented that despite government’s huge investment in youth development centres across the country, most of them were abandoned due to lack of continuity and paucity of funds.
” Government invested heavily in setting up these youth development centers in all parts of the country, sadly most of them were abandoned due to lack of continuity and paucity of funds. Once there is a change in representation of the member championing it as constituency project, the centres are abandoned and left to rot away. This would no longer be tolerated. We would bring most of these facilities back for the benefit of our youth and the communities where they are located”
According to a statement made available to the media by Mr A.B Lere-Adams, Director-Press of the Ministry, the Onla village youth development center which started in 2013 as a Ministry of Youth and Sports Development project has been turned into a farm settlement with over grown weeds.
