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A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE GOVERNOR OF EKITI STATE, DR. KAYODE FAYEMI, AT THE OPENING

CEREMONY OF THE FIRST BATCH GROUP B 2,500 VOLUNTEER CORPS AT NYSC CAMP, ISE-EMURE ON

TUESDAY,

11TH OCTOBER, 2011

PROTOCOLS

I am delighted to be here this morning for the opening of

the training programme for the second batch of the State

Volunteers Corps. You would recall that 2,500 members of the

first batch of the Corps were trained at this very venue between

Friday, 24th June and 3rd July 2011. This event is to continue with

the success story of the programme.

The issues of growing unemployment in Nigeria cannot

continue to be treated with kid gloves. Available data on the

social problem which unemployment has become in Nigeria is

very scary. The office of the Statistician General of the

Federation puts the number of unemployed Nigerians at a

staggering 32.5 million. This is 48.8% of the population of the

 

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country of about 150 million citizens. Ironically,

the country has enough resources to make her citizens fully and

gainfully engaged.

Something drastic has to done and very quickly too, to stem

this tide. Obviously, there is a clear synergy between

unemployment and poverty. To reduce poverty, therefore, we

must tackle decisively the menace of unemployment and wage a

successful war against it in our land.

The concept of Youth Volunteers Corps in Ekiti State is the

novel approach of this government to put poverty to flight

through purposeful Youth employment. The training has been

carefully packaged to make graduates here functionally active to

handle productive ventures in and outside of government offices.

It is heart-warming to note that all the first batch Volunteers

had been engaged in different sectors of the state economy.

Many were deployed to Ministries/Parastatals, some as

Community Development Agents (CDA) and others as Pioneer

staffs of the State Transport Management Agency. Many of the

Corps are also being encouraged and trained to take advantage

of the State Government efforts at modernizing agriculture

through civilized mechanization. The skill upgrading through

 

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collaboration with the private sector, NGO’s and

international organizations will be explored to bring life more

abundant to our people.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, I like to challenge you,

the beneficiaries of this government initiative to settle down to

serious business in the next ten days of this retreat. It is a once

in a life time opportunity if you can look beyond the surface and

key into the intellectual template of the programme, I assure you

your life will never remain the same. This training is not for the

fun of it. You must leave here a better person, not a burden or

liability to the society. I want to re-echo here for the avoidance of

doubt that the coordinators of this programme have been

empowered to eject any unserious participants discovered at any

stage of the training session. So keep the rules of the Camp and

rechannel your focus on how you would contribute your own

quota to the development of the State after these 10 days.

It is now my honour and the privilege to declare this

leadership training open to the glory of God almighty and for the

benefit of our people.

Thank you and God bless.