Group flays Bello’s youth empowerment with wheelbarrows

Guardians of Democracy and Development (GDD) has criticised Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State for distributing wheelbarrows and shovels to unemployed youths in the state as a form of empowerment.

The group warned Nigerians to be wary of Bello, who is reportedly eyeing the country’s top job in 2023.

In a statement signed by its convener, Danesi Momoh, GDD described such empowerment programme as an insult to the people of Kogi.

It urged Nigerians to be thorough in assessing people who aspire for public office rather than basing their decisions on mundane issues such as age, religion and ethnicity.

According to the group, Nigeria has attained a height that it can no longer afford mediocre leadership, explaining that the social and infrastructural deficit require someone who is scientific in his reasoning and approach to governance.

“Majority of Nigerians are not satisfied with the state of affairs in the country, and this shortfall is in all spheres of life. What this entails is that we have not taken seriously the processes of selecting our leaders.

“This is why, as civil society, we have taken it upon ourselves to mobilise Nigerians to get involved in the leadership selection process. One of the ways of doing this is to speak against those who are eminently not qualified to occupy leadership positions.

“A governor, who still sees wheelbarrow and shovels as empowerment implements certainly has nothing desirable to offer than returning the country to the Stone Age,” he stated.

While acknowledging the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari, the group insisted that the country “deserves someone who will do better; not one who is oblivious that machines have taken over strenuous jobs hitherto done manually.”