The Managing Director of the North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Akali, has restated the commitment of the Commission to youth empowerment.
“We have dedicated a lot of time and resources to ensure that youths are properly captured in all our programmes,” he said.
Akali stated this Tuesday in Abuja when he received the Minister of State for Youth Development, Mr. Ayodele Olawande who paid him a courtesy call.
He disclosed the Commission shortly after it was created, developed a master plan where youths are empowered through agriculture, Information and Communication Technology, Commerce.
He said: “15 years of Boko Haram insurgency in the North East had left the region in dire need of intervention.
“Over 70 percent of school teachers were killed in Borno state alone.’
The NEDC had taken steps by recruiting more teachers to fill-in the gap because the commission believes that education is the key to societal development.
“When we went round the North East states, we discovered that the education sector has collapsed. So we decided to 18 build mega schools across the region. Many of the schools will be commissioned very soon.
“Besides the conventional schools, we have also decided to build 18 ICTs centres across the region to cater for youths who cannot go back to conventional schools.
“We have two aspects of the IT. One is the repair of handsets and second is graphic design,” he said.
He said the Commission would partner with the Ministry to fight the menace of drug abuse ravaging the youth in our society.
“Youth unemployment is one of the factors fueling Boko Haram. Some of them have finished school and have nothing doing . That is why most of the Boko Haram insurgents are young people.
“Most youth engage in drug abuse because of frustration and lack of engagement. They complete their education and find anything to do.
They have no job, they are idle, the government is very far from them.They look for something that would give them succour and comfort, so they engage in drug abuse.
“We are happy that you decided to take action against drug abuse. We are going to support you in all possible means because this is part of our mandate,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, Olawande expressed the desire of his Ministry to partner NEDC in the fight against drug abuse among the youth in the region.
The minister lamented the negative effects of drug abuse among the youth in the region.
He noted that youths are engaged in social vices because government is far from them.
He said: “If not now that we have the Renewed Hope Agenda, I discovered that government is too far from the young ones. They don’t feel, see or touch the government.
“The youths of this country can thrive in all aspects and they have shown it in different areas.
“If you go to sports, tech, entertainment they are there.We are here to complement your efforts. If we work together we can achieve a lot.
” The number of young people that are into drugs is getting out of hand. Fine we have the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, we have to find a way to talk to our young people on why they should not indulge in drug abuse.
“That is why we decided to start the campaign. We must tackle the problem of drug abuse that has become rampart in our society. Nobody is safe. Even our young children are not safe,” he concluded.
