Marine and Blue Economy minister, Mr Gboyega Oyetola at the weekend assured Nigerians especially youths that President Bola Tinubu is committed to creating jobs through various skills acquisition programs.
He said the only way for youths to benefit from such programs is for them to pursue their education career which he according to him, is panacea for development.
Oyetola spoke during the 2023 edition of Iragbiji Day celebration where eminent sons and daughters of the town converged to take decision concerning the development of the community.
Oyetola said the Tinubu-led Federal Government is determined to ensure that youths empowerment and employment take priority, urging the youths and women to embrace all acquisition programs capable of turning their lives for the better.
“I appreciate the monarch for the level of development going on in the town, the king is driving development in this community. You have been an inspiration to many of us.
“I want to commend all the sons and daughters of Iragbiji for their support, it is beyond politics. I thank all the donors to the Iragbiji projects.
“To all the youths, please pursue your education career without compromise, put in your best. Please don’t play truancy. There is no constraint to what you can be in life, there may be no job now but what President Tinubu is doing, jobs will be guaranteed for youths.
“What made me sad today is that all the efforts put into ensuring that we have a skill centre for our youths have been turned into something else.
“When I was the governor I facilitated some SDG projects that will assist our youths and women to acquire skills but I am so unhappy that the same project that we fought for to get to this community has now been turned into a base for soccer, I have no quarrel with football but you must use this facility for the purpose it is made.
“The centre is meant for the acquisition of skills for youth. I am going to talk to the government of Osun State today, to please recognise that these projects are put up by the Federal Government for the benefit of our youths. You can decide to have your football camp elsewhere but not converting the facility that I fought for when I was the governor to base for camping for footballers, it is very bad and unacceptable.
“Government cannot do everything so we need to ensure we support government in development. The concept is that we need to gain ground. We have been doing this Iragbiji Day for 32 years, you can see the level of development that it has brought. I want to encourage communities to please support government both at the local, state and federal levels.
“There is conscious effort on security of marine environment, we have Diplo Project that has gunboat and many security equipment. We are already looking at the possibility of establishing coast guard which will be designed essentially to ensure the safety of our coastal line. We have not less than 853 KM of coastline in Nigeria and about 10,000 perimeter of inland water ways, if we want to ensure coastal tourism we must provide adequate security, we are working with the Navy, Marine police and others to ensure security.”.
The Chairman of Iragbiji Day , Dr Muritala Adeyemi while speaking at theoccasion said he has given N2.5m in support of indigent students.
His words: “We received the money, I set up a committee headed by myself, we named the committee as Iragbiji Community Education Trust fund. We went round public schools in the community and we identified 50 students who were preparing for WAEC and NECO, we paid their fees, we paid for their JAMB form and we mentored them.
“We looked for indigent students who are Physically Challenged, we sponsored them. We sponsored others who are at University of Ilorin and Ekiti State University. We expended the money for the purpose of the donor.
‘We are at a stage of registering the fund with the CAC, we want it to be sustainable, our target is that in the next ten years we should be able to have more than 500 graduates that would have benefited from the programme.
He urged sons and daughters of the community to continue to support the noble course so that the fund will be sustainable towards expanding the scope capable of benefiting all and sundry.
