A human right group, Royal Peoples Platform (RPP) has said that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu deserves a pat on the back over his efforts towards human development through agricultural programmes and skills acquisition schemes.
The group, through a statement from its Convener, Dare Aladekoba gave kudos to Sanwo-Olu’s administration on the training of 4, 885 people that graduated from the 17 Skills Acquisition Centres across the state, saying, “The initiative is a welcome development.”
Aladekoba reasoned that acquisition of skills in several trades like fashion designing, hat and bead making, aluminium fabrication, shoe making, among others would increase the number of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in the state and by extension improve the socio-economic status of the beneficiaries.
The youth leader expressed the belief that the beneficiaries would be financially sufficient, economically independent and emotionally comfortable to be able to contribute their modest quotas to the growth of the state economy and its welfare.
The group also praised the governor over his programme on agriculture, saying, it is a right step towards sufficient food production for the people.
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Sanwo-Olu, according to Aladekoba, has commendably keyed into the National Campaign for return to the land, saying, the step would further boost the fortunes of the farmer through the project, and also serve as a veritable avenue for increased Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The organisation also stated that the agricultural value chains would lead to the empowerment of hundreds of farmers across the state with inputs to either kick-start or improve their businesses, describing the initiative as an avenue to increase the volume of production and move the state further in its quest for food security.
The scheme, Aladekola reasoned, would also assist in generating more jobs for the teeming unemployed youths, enthusing that the Imota Rice Mill that has the capacity to produce 650 bags of 50kg per hour and has two lines to produce 16 metric tonnes each would need more hands on board for maximum production.
“The scheme would, therefore, serve as a veritable means of providing jobs for the teeming population of the unemployed youths of the state. And the availability of jobs for them would take them off the streets and thus reducing the rate of crime that idle hands can engage in.
The group further praised the governor for his foresightedness in realising that when all hands were effectively and gainfully engaged, the rate of crime in the communities would drastically reduce if not totally eradicated; pointing out that, the dependence over government for assistance would go down to the barest minimum from those beneficiaries.
Aladekoba, who believes that the skills acquisition programme would be a continuous exercise, admonished the beneficiaries, who have been empowered with necessary tools to practise to reciprocate the government’s good gesture settling down to make judicious use of the opportunities extended to them by the government.
Against this backdrop, the group therefore, enjoined the good people of Lagos to double their support and encouragement for the administration to do more, enthusing that, “Sanwo-Olu’s administration is determined to take the state to the enviable height of word standard,” Aladekoba concluded.
