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•NEDC fixing education in N’east, says Alkali

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Minister of State for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, has expressed concern that the youths and the young ones were not feeling the impact of the government in the north, adding that their resort to abuse of was already getting out of hands.

Olawande, who commended the North East Development Commission (NEDC) for its intervention in the North East states, stressed that if the ministry and the commission collaborated, they would have greater impact, especially in the area of youth empowerments.

“I have been to all states of the North East and I saw your impact, you have done well. If you go around the country, everybody is talking about protest, engagement. I discovered that the government is too far away from the youths and the young ones are not feeling the impact of the government.

“We are here to complement your efforts. It is one government. The large number of young people that are into drugs is getting out of hand.

“What are the things we can do to tackle the use of drug abuse that has become so rampant? We need an aggressive engagement, because if we don’t do it now, a time will come that we won’t even be able to sleep in our house.

“We have a roadmap, we have an agenda, let us come together, support what you have been doing. “One Youth One Ward” is an initiative to fight drug abuse among the youths starting from the grassroot.”

On his part, the Managing Director of NEDC, Mohammed Alkali, has revealed that the commission had embarked on training of teachers, building of mega schools and provision of  scholarship scheme to students as part of efforts to resuscitate the education system in the region that was destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgent.

Alkali disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, when the Minister of State for Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, paid a courtesy visit to his office.

He explained that youth empowerment and education were fully entrenched in the master plan of the commission, noting that when they were inaugurated about five years ago, they took a challenge to visit all the states of the North East.

He said the tour of the states was an eye opener, as they garnered first hand information on what was needed to transform the region.

“When we started, we realised that the education system in the North East, particularly Borno state, had been destroyed. We have built 18 mega schools, three in each state, one in each senatorial district,” he said.