Youths of Akwa Ibom State have been handsomely rewarded for heeding the advice of the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno to boy cut the August 1-10 nationwide protest against bad governance.
The reward of N310m cash, among other empowerment promises came on Tuesday during a youth really at the Uyo Township Stadium.
Recall the governor in a meeting with stakeholders on the eve of day one of the #EndBadGovernance protest in Uyo had promised to appreciate youths of the state if they shunned the nationwide protest for the sake of peace and coexistence.
The appeal by the governor resulted in loud apathy, coupled with the overwhelmed intimidation from a joint security team coordinated by the Police Command in the state.
At a thank you gathering in Uyo to fulfill his promise of a reward, the Governor announced a reward of “N10Million per Local Government Area (LGA)” as reward for youths across the state for obedience to his appeal to shun the protest.
“The leadership of the youths in each of LGA will receive the money and spread it, across party line”, adding that the gesture was a promise he had to keep in appreciation of youths of the state.
“We can’t leave you the way we met you. We are inspired that you listened to our pleas not to join the protest, not because we don’t believe in protests or don’t feel what is going on in the country.
“We know there are always people that will hijack the most peaceful protest to destroy and vent anger on government facilities. Our leaders have worked so hard in the past 37 years of the creation of our state to put this infrastructure in place. And one minute of anger can destroy all of it.
“We are not ashamed you did well and we are here to give you a pat on the back. Though you didn’t protest, we heard you loud and clear. We know the issues you’re angry about.
“We know those things that should be addressed. Issues of hunger, unemployment, pains and high prices of food. We try within resources available in our state to address them to the benefit of our people,” he stated.
According to him, he has a charter with the youths on the things his administration would do for Akwa Ibom youths in the next one year, he further approved, “That 100 youths per Local Government Area (LGA) will be added to the Ibom Community Watch across political party lines.
“One thing you must know, our big men when they meat at the club, when they share the money, they don’t know political party. So no discrimination.
“Student bursary raised from N10,000 to N20,000 for undergraduates and N20,000 to N30,000 for those pursuing professionals courses and post graduate students.
“Ministry of Labour working with my Senior Special Assistant on ICT to open an employment portal for all youths in Akwa Ibom. When you register, it will automatical sort your area of specialisation. When we want to recruit even for government, we will just go into the portal to filter the qualifications we want.
“We will engage with oil companies in Akwa Ibom to harvest applicant for interview. We don’t want crowd of people to stand on interview queues and kill selves looking for employment. Let’s have a digital platform where we have your qualifications and call for employment.
“We will on monthly bases support 5000 youths every month with N50,000 business grant from this portal to start small businesses as individuals or groups, pulling their resources together to start a farm, because we don’t want you to just stay idle waiting for employment,” Eno promised.
In their separate speeches at the event, stakeholders urged the governor to push for completion of Ibom Science Park initiated by former governor Attached, as tool for fast tracking technological development in the state.
They however expressed discontentment that such a project has been abandoned by successive administrations after billions of naira have been dunked into it.
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