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| Gov. Olusegun Mimiko |
Remi Oladoye
Youth Unemployment is one of the major problems in the world, thisdoes not excluded the western world , one of the basis for campaign againstUnited state president Barack Obama is the high rate ofunemployment in the Gods owncountry, the country which is repudiated to beone of the wealthiestnation in the world.
Developed countries like china , Japan Germany and others of their status in theworld s despitetheir economic and technological buoyancy still experiencesomelevel of unemployment , but they were able tocontrolled it through some policies that offered succourandfuture plans for theyounger generations whovictims of thedastardmenace .
Nigeria as a nationis not excluded from this anti development menace and it quite disappointing thatmost of our past and presentleaders do not see this increasingnumber ofunemployment rate in the nation as something that may collapse the entirety of this nationone day, the youth arebeing pushedand by the time they getpushed to the wall, the will definitely react and this may be in a negative way.
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| Fish pond |
Though the government at all level are trying to reduce the rate but their action is like a drop in the ocean, becauseof many factorsranging from their inability to tackle the fundamental problemswhich include, negligence of the farming sector, makinggovernmentand white collars job less attractive, repackaging the education policy in such a way that it will includeserious vocational training among others. Even though the government especially the Federal government has through several policy tried to curb the menace but the fact remains the high rate of corruption among the top government officials and politicians is a contributing factor to the problem.
Increasing birth rate, lack of industry, and the epilepticpower generation and distribution is another factor thatif remain uncheckwill continue toaggravate the unemployment crisis in the nation, if there issteady power supply industries will thrive, more labourers and professionalswill be employedand the economics of the nationwill not remainstagnant.
No thanks to some of our politician at state and local level who also in the process of creating employment opportunities, createan avenue to siphonfundsfor personal aggrandizement , most of themmakeempty promises,for instance someof the governorsespecially in the southwestintroduceakind ofemployment schemein which graduates of University, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education and school cert holders were being engaged in a jobwhere they worked either as atraffic warden, cleaners and others with a paltry sum of10 000in a month, of what value will this add to the peoples life,the scheme though reducethe suffering rate but i see is as a means to scorepolitical pointthan helping the youths.Some of the statewhich claims have employedabout 20, 000 youthdo not have up to10,000 on their payroll , so where goes the balance? Into their pocket may be.
In spite of thecountries situation we still have some of the governors thatis doing everything humanly possible tomake life more meaningfulfor the youth by laying a solid foundation and lasting legacies which will not only make the youth a better person in the nearest futurebut an employer’s of labour throughAgriculture
Agriculture has been our traditionalworksince the creation of the world especially in this part of the world, most of other thingswe doincluding art andcraft take lower percentagecompare to Agric business, and it is notnews that the sector has not only been neglected , it has also been placed on a level that has no valueas before as nobody want to go to the farm. Several attempt bypast and presentgovernments to reviveagriculture did not yieldmuch result asthe implementations of the policieswhere warp and defective, while the funds votedfor such project were beingstolen bythe unscrupulouselements in the system.
A recent visit to the Agric business city in Ore which was established by the Ondo state government under the Leadership of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko reveals how best to tackle unemployment through agriculture rather than offering a menial Job with paltrysalary.
Dr Mimiko havingidentifies theproblem of unemploymentin the statedecided toapproachthe problem in a more subtle way that willnot onlyhelp the peoplebutgave them a lasting legacies but will also make them an employer’s of labourwhich some of them are already doing.In this scheme young school leavers who are referred to as participant farmers are being trained in their aspect of choice,and afterthe training session receivedloan and establish his own farm.
In the process of my investigation, iwas told by the farm ManagerMr Sadiqwho is a trained Agric Engineer thatthe farm land is occupying about 7000 hectaresand 4000 hectares has been open up forthe youth forfarming purposes, heequally said that they trained people in cultivation of arable crops, cash crops ,fishery cattleand sheep rearing,andthe engineering section where theythe farmer learnhow to handle and repair farm equipments
“thegovernors focus is to createan environment where our youths canlearn something that will help them in achieving their life’s goal, which thecertificate theyare holding may not full do, and in the process the government put in place everything needed to make this people a better person in life,apart from the farm, there isalso hostels where the participant farmersstays, in the hostels they have water,electricity, sport centreand they have game centre where thewatch dstv and playgames, they also haveaccess to book and internet materials that can help them to learn better”.
It was also learnt that interestedmembers of the publicwho mustbe a resident of Ondo statewere invited for screening and the qualified one among them were takenandtrained, in the course of trainingthe governmentmakes available all the necessarymaterials needed by the farmer who is been allotted withland depending on hisarea of specialization, chemicalsand others were also made availableto the participant farmers who is being givensome allowances at the end of every month . The farmer at the end of harvesting period will later deduct the cost of materials collected from the governments and have the balance as his gains, thissystem applies to all the sector.The government through the agric agencies make available a pond facilities for the farmers, filled it with 1000 juveniles, train the participant farmer on how to rear fish and by the end of the harvesting period to the government help in marketingand give the farmers his proceed
The governor in his bid to revamp the oil palm sector in the state also imported about 800,000 treatedpalmseed from Malaysiafor oil palm productionin the state, the seedaccording to Mr Sadiq areexpected to beproducingin the next two and half or three years .
The Chief Press secretary to the governorMr Eni Akinsola in an interviewrecentlyidentifies power problem as one of the majorfactors militating againsteconomic stability andyouth employments in thecountry,and the governorhaving seen the need to make Ondo state a better state thanhe met itdecided to introduce the Agricbusiness city,because electricity is not much needed inthe sector, not that we are not working on electricity generationwe are working on generationof almost 250 megga watt of electricity but we want a situation whereby our people will befully engagedin developing what we have, our landfrom the North to the southis good for farmingwe are not onlyencouraging the people we are alsomaking facilities available forprivate partnersto come and establishfarmsand industries inthe area but you know we have todo it one after the otherand that is exactly what we are doing”
MrAkinsola explained further that, governor Mimikohas since his assumptionbeen issuing a revolving loanto farmers in thestate, i am awareof the loan given to the yam farmers andit has been re paid,we are trying to get everybody involved in this agric business and the only way is to create an enabling environment whichthe Mimiko led administration isdoing.
Someof the participant who spoke with author of this piececonfirmed what Mr. Sadiqsaid about the farm andsaidthey are happy to have been beneficiaries of the scheme, one of them whosimply identifiesas Adebayo a graduate of geology from the Federal University of Technology Minashare this with us“ i took part in the pilotprogramme wherelearn fisheries,after six monthi went home with my harvest andstarted my own pondwhere i havetwostaff presently, i paid them six thousandper month, i am here to learnhow to cultivate arable crops again,not that i don’t have the idea but i am learning a new method of farming that will help mewhen i start my own farm in my village” asked why he decided to abandonhis certificateforfarming, he said“ not that i don’tcherish my certificatebut where is the job, for how long do i need to continue to wastetime looking forgovernment or privateorganisation job, this i am learning is also good i have educationand with the knowledgei am acquiring herei will be a better person in the business”.
It was also leant that the government has put in place farms settlement inEpe, Asuda, and Augaall in Ondo state wherebusiness of such nature istaking place,the beginning may be skeletalbut it is obvious that this system if well maintained willnot only reduce the rate of unemployment in our nation but will alsocreate an automatic market for raw materials whichlater willencourage citing of industries andeconomy growth.
It would have been better for other state governor in the southwest toborrow a leaf fromDr Olusegun Mimiko’s pattern of development andagricbusiness policywhichhas a long term benefit for the youth rather than engaging them in traffic warden, cleanerand others forms of its kind where they may not acquire any meaningfulknowledge but a mere instrument ofscoring cheap political point . On this note iwant to recommend thatFederal andother state governorto adopt Dr Mimiko initiativeson developing the youth through Agriculture.
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