Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, has charged the youths of Anambra state to take the future of the state seriously as they are the key and major stakeholders in the development of the state.
The Governor was speaking at a mega rally organized by youths under the aegis of United Anambra Youths Assembly, UAYA at Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, to show solidarity with the administration as well as endorse him for continuity.
It was a magnificent sight as thousands of colorfully dressed youths and women including the Ebelechukwu Obiano Ladies Movement and other affiliate organizations from the 21 local government areas of the state converged.
It was an opportunity for them to bare their minds on the activities of the Obiano administration in which they affirmed that the Governor has indeed transformed the state in addition to the laudable youth oriented programmes his administration has been involved in.
They vowed never to go back to the days of rascality wherein the state property was burnt down and destroyed.
The National leader of the youth group, Chinedu Obidigwe, maintained that they are saying no to irresponsibility and never again would they be used as instruments of destruction of the state.
“Never listen to those disgruntled people, they betrayed us in the past and they cannot convince us now. There was a time all the property belonging to Ndi Anambra state was burnt down.
“Your Excellency, that government house was burnt down. The Governor’s lodge was burnt down. The governor’s lodge at Onitsha was burnt down. Ikenga Hotel and ABS were burnt down. ABS people are here; they can attest to this. Bad things were happening in this state.
“Your Excellency you salvaged us from the trouble. A former governor was kidnapped in this state and today that former governor is making noise at the center. He has forgotten how bad things were. Your Excellency, we are saying it loud that anybody who is making noise for you is ranting.
“We are being used for thuggery and you turned our lives back. You changed us with your mantra, mission and vision and today, we are reasoning along with you. Nobody born by a man can truncate it, God is there and Anambra is watching,” Obidigwe roared.
An important programme in the agenda of the youths was the endorsement of Governor Obiano for continuity in office, which the group leader for Ogbaru local government area and his counterpart from Idemili North council area initiated.
A frenzied excitement enveloped the mammoth crowd during the endorsement.
The highly elated National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Victor Oye, proudly declared that Governor Obiano was a performing governor and APGA is the only political party that is healthy enough to contain any other political aggression.
“APGA is the only political party in Nigeria today that has a clean bill of health, all the other political parties are suffering from epilepsy.
“They are suffering from stagnation and all these conditions lead to irreversible coma and when they move into irreversible coma, APGA will be the ultimate undertaker,” he said.
Poised To Do More
In his reaction to the generous out-pour of encouraging assurances of support from the youths, Governor Willie Obiano reminded the youths that the future of Anambra state lay in their hands and assured them of his commitment to ensure they became independent and self-reliant through agriculture and other economic activities.
“The youths of any place especially in Anambra are the future of Anambra. That is why we are not joking with you. All my four pillars, agriculture, trade and commerce, oil and gas and industrialization, all those areas are to create jobs youths.
“In the last two years plus, we have employed, in various categories, over 800,000 youths and we will still employ more in the coming year.
“I am sure you listened carefully to my budget speech a week ago where we multiplied five times what we are doing this year in agriculture to what we are going to do next year.
“What that means is, there will be lot of work opportunities for our youths and that is why we keep saying be a good ambassador wherever you are as a youth. Do not get into trouble, be good, we will get job for you.
“By the way, anybody that wants work in Agriculture area, I can assure you will get one almost immediately,” Obiano declared.
The Anambra State government has inaugurated a new phase of Youths and Women Empowerment Process, starting with the agrarian local government areas of Anambra East and West.