The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Francis Nwifuru on Youths Mobilization Comrade Chinedu Emerike, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Ebonyi State Governor, Rt. Hon. Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru, for what he described as a growing federal-state partnership in skills development, human capital investment and youth economic empowerment.

Emerike, who is also the National President of the Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru (FON) Youth Movement,, gave the commendation in a statement issued in Abakaliki on Friday following the commissioning of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) Automotive Training Centre along Ogoja Road, Abakaliki.

He described the facility as a significant intervention in technical education and youth development, stressing that its value extended beyond automobile repairs to encompass skills acquisition, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation and employment generation.

The FON Youth Movement president particularly commended the Federal Government for locating the facility in Ebonyi and NADDC for delivering the project, noting that Minister of State for Industry, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Owan Enoh, had disclosed at the commissioning that it was the first NADDC training centre he was commissioning in the South-East.

According to Emerike, the development demonstrated the potential of constructive collaboration between the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the Ebonyi State Government’s People’s Charter of Needs.

He said: “The commissioning of this centre is a practical demonstration that when federal and state institutions work together around a common development objective, the ultimate beneficiaries are the people, particularly our young people.

“We commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the Federal Government’s continuing emphasis on skills development, industrialisation and human capital, while we equally commend Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru for creating the enabling environment that has attracted and sustained interventions of this nature in Ebonyi.”

Emerike urged Ebonyi youths to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the NADDC centre and other skills-development initiatives rather than regard technical and vocational education as inferior to conventional academic pathways.

He said the centre’s focus on modern automotive technologies was particularly relevant at a time when the industry was witnessing rapid changes involving electric vehicles, automotive electronics, diagnostics and other emerging technologies.

He added that the NADDC Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, had stated that the centre was designed to provide practical, industry-relevant training while also supporting certification and entrepreneurship.

“Ebonyi youths must see these opportunities as pathways to economic independence. The objective should not merely be to acquire certificates but to acquire competencies that can be converted into businesses, employment and sustainable livelihoods,” Emerike stated.

He noted that the Nwifuru administration’s human-capital agenda extended beyond the newly commissioned automotive centre, citing the FON4-TECH digital skills programme, which recently trained young Ebonyians in web development, graphic design, Web3 and AI automation.

He also cited the administration’s reported ₦1 billion intervention involving 200 young Ebonyians trained in modern agriculture and subsequently provided with #3 and ₦5 million each in start-up support respectively, describing the initiative as an example of combining skills, capital and opportunities.

Emerike further referenced educational interventions, including postgraduate scholarships and other capacity-building programmes, saying the administration’s human-capital strategy was increasingly focused on exposing Ebonyians to skills and opportunities capable of improving their competitiveness.

Governor Nwifuru had, in a recent engagement, said more than 1,000 Ebonyians had been sponsored for postgraduate programmes in overseas and indigenous universities, linking the initiative to his administration’s objective of exposing young people to global knowledge and opportunities.

Emerike said the combination of technical training, digital skills, agricultural enterprise, education and industrial development could help reposition young people from passive beneficiaries of government programmes into active participants in the state’s productive economy.

He also urged political actors across the state to keep political engagement within the bounds of responsible democratic discourse, warning against cyberbullying, personal attacks and inflammatory social-media exchanges.

“Political competition should not become a war of insults on social media. Those who disagree with government policies should present facts, alternative programmes and constructive criticism.

“The people deserve a political environment where issues such as education, employment, healthcare, infrastructure, security, agriculture, industrialisation and human-capital development are subjected to serious debate,” he said.

He called on opposition parties and other political actors to engage the People’s Charter of Needs through verifiable facts and alternative policy proposals, rather than what he described as unnecessary online confrontation.

Emerike maintained that young people had a responsibility to participate constructively in governance and development, stressing that government interventions would have greater impact when beneficiaries were prepared to utilise the opportunities responsibly.

He said the commissioning of the NADDC centre should therefore serve as a fresh call to Ebonyi youths to embrace technical competence, entrepreneurship and innovation.

“The future belongs to those who are prepared. Our youths should acquire skills, build enterprises, create employment and become contributors to the economic development of Ebonyi State and Nigeria.

“This is the kind of youth mobilisation we advocate for mobilisation towards skills, productivity, innovation, peaceful citizenship and economic self-reliance,” Emerike stated.

The FON Youth Movement leader also urged NADDC to sustain the centre with modern equipment, qualified trainers, certification programmes and strong linkages with the private sector to ensure that beneficiaries could transition from training to productive enterprise.

He said the centre, if properly sustained, could contribute to the development of a skilled automotive workforce capable of supporting transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and other productive sectors across Ebonyi and the wider South-East.