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By Stephen Adeleye.
Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi State on Friday scored his government high in the areas of security, job creation, infrastructures, good governance, youth empowerment among others as he celebrates two years in office.
Bello disclosed this at the Kogi Mega Youth Dialogue meeting, themed: “2019 Election: Setting The Youth Agenda”, organised by National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) in collaboration with Ministry of Sports and Youth Development in Lokoja.
Bello, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr Edward Onoja, also said that his administration has been able to foster enduring unity among various ethnics, religious and political groups across the state.
In the area job creation, he said his administration had created over 25,000 jobs directly or indirectly under the state empowerment programmes in agriculture, and over 2000 youths were employed in the State Vigilante Services.
Bello emphasised that his government has recorded overwhelming feat in the last two years in securing the lives and property of the citizenry, which he said had attracted local and foreign investors and development to the state.
He added that the state government had been able to increase its monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) from the previous N350 million to over N1 billion.
According to him, the government has ensure thorough clinical reformation of the state’s civil service and in the next few months Kogi state civil service will be adjudged the best in Nigeria.
“Our government is too focused to be distracted, the propaganda by the failed and expired politicians in the state is a free advertisement for us to promote our administration.
“The health indices of our people have improved tremendously, child mortality and morbidity rate has reduced significantly. We have spent about N250 million to enhance the health of our people through various halthcare intervention programmes.
“We have earmarked N1 billion in 2018 state budget that will be used solely for numerous women intervention programmes,” Bello said.
Earlier, the State Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, Mr Sani Salisu, commended the governor for his vision for the youth which had made them a cynosure of attention as far as the youth inclusiveness in governance is concerned in Nigeria.
Salisu said that the ministry would continue to work with all stakeholders including Development Partner in achieving the objective of entrenching the “Youthful & Useful” slogan into practical terms.
Mr Oladele Nihi, the State’s Chairman of NYCN, applauded the governor for re-writing the history of the youth in Kogi, adding that over 90 per cent of the state government appointees were below 40 years and 99 per cent of them were frequent on social media.
Nihi, who is the convener of the program, appealed to the governor to give the youth the opportunity to represent the state in elective positions at all levels in the 2019 general elections.
In her remark, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the governor, Mrs Petra Akinti-Onyegbule, said that Gov. Bello’s administration remained the only state government in Nigeria that has integrated the youths into government functionaries.
Akinti-Onyegbule, who anchored the program, said: “We are setting the youth agenda for 2019 election to help the youth to strategise by taking the right decision and vote wisely”.
Various guest speakers spoke on different topics at the Kogi mega youth dialogue meeting, which included: “The Power of Vision in Agenda Setting”, “Youth Unemployment & Electoral Violence”, among others.
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