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Mrs Petra Akinti-Onyegbule, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to Gov. Yahaya Bello of Kogi, has reaffirmed the commitment of the governor to empower women and youths across the state to be self-reliant.
Akinti-Onyegbule gave the assurance in an interview with our reporter on Saturday in Lokoja, on the sidelines of activities to mark two years anniversary of the administration.
According to her, the involvement of many youths and women in the day-to-day running of the present administration led by Gov. Bello is an indication that the government is a youth focused government.
“Looking back at where we met Kogi, where we are currently, and where we hope to go in the new direction; the task is enormous and daunting because the rot has been on for decades such that you need the youthful zest to tackle the menace.
“You need the positive exuberant of the youthful demographic to drive the state from the low ebb where it was to a greater height where we want it to be becaus the situation of the state was worst before the advent of his Excellency.
“What we met was not a situation where we were going to use old people who were depleted of their strength and energy, we need the vigor, intellectual strength, and the capacity to act appropriately as the occasion demands,” She said.
Akinti-Onyegbule added that the governor has continued to reach out to young people, saying in the history of Kogi, the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) for instance, had never made these kind of impacts it was making now.
According to her, the leadership of the NYCN in Kogi is complementing the energy, the philosophy and goals of this administration, and reaching out to the youths throug diverse programs in agriculture, Job creation, value orientation, skills acquisition among others.
“We are empowering our youths and also changing their value orientation system because the youth are so active in the day to day social economy activities of the society.
“It becomes very imperative that their values are re-orientated to fit into the new direction vision for the state and that is being achieved,” Akinti-Onyegbule said.
The CPS also noted that the governor has demonstrated his love and respect for women in the state because he valued the women and understood that women were pivotal to the sustainable growth and development of any society.
“I will like to draw the attention of people to the fact that it is not just appointing women, but it is in the strategic roles that the governor gives the women to play.
“We have the SSG, who is the only female SSG in Nigeria right at the moment, we have his chief press secretary and commissioners who are women and the first time any government is doing such in Kogi.
“We have the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology now, who was former Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, which used to be a ministry that was in the backwaters because nobody paid attention to the environment.
“But we had this very articulate woman whom his Excellency recognised and appointed and she brought the environment into our consciousness.
“Today, we are talking about noise pollution, degradation, and deforestation of the environment and the need to make preparation for all the sins we have committed against the planet and how to repair it, and actually have a lot to preserve for our future generations.
“This woman has done a lot in the environment; people now know that beyond sanitation, beyond a static of having a clean environment, that we are actually protecting our planet.
“We are actually doing ourselves more good not just because ‘health is wealth’, but because we need a place to stay, we need a place we can call home.
“Home is not just the building, home is where the building is inhabited,” she said.
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