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Okowa canvasses restructuring, skills acquisition for better nation

By Monday Osayande, Asaba
12 November 2020   |   4:22 am
Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said that the many challenges facing the country can only be addressed through restructuring its economic and political fabrics to engender a better polity.

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said that the many challenges facing the country can only be addressed through restructuring its economic and political fabrics to engender a better polity.

Speaking to journalists in Asaba, yesterday, Okowa stated that the Federal Government has a lot of responsibilities, but has been unable to deliver on most of them, which he said, required restructuring the country.

He said: “Once Nigeria is restructured, I believe the governors will be able to strongly support the need to devolve more powers to the states and local government areas.”

On agitations by oil communities to control the 13 per cent derivation, Okowa said realising such demands was not possible, since it would be impossible for all oil-bearing communities to control their resources.

“If they are agitating for 13 per cent to be paid to them directly, what happens to the remaining percentage? If every community controls their resources, then we are heading to Banana Republic, but if a governor mismanages the funds, he should be voted out. Again, why not ask for the entire percentage, instead of the 13 per cent? he asked.

Okowa pointed out that the outbreak of COVID-19, #EndSARS protests and the Yellow Fever currently killing people in some communities of the state were some of his major setbacks to his administration’s efforts at running the state effectively.

He also underscored the importance of skills acquisition in the fight against poverty, stressing that skills acquisition was the way out of unemployment and abject poverty currently ravaging the country.

Okowa stated this when the state chapter of Police Officers Wives Association (POWA), led by wife of the Commissioner of Police, Aisha Hafiz-Inuwa, visited him at Government House, Asaba.

He commended the association for its contributions to development of society through their philanthropic gestures and reaffirmed that his administration had continued to empower youths in the state to make them self-reliant.

“We have continued to make skills acquisition a policy, because we realised that it is the only way to overcome the unemployment conundrum that we have found ourselves as a nation.”

“In the last five years, we have ensured that we redirect the minds of our youths towards skills acquisition and we give them starter-packs to enable them to stand on their own,” he stated.

Speaking, Mrs. Hafiz-Inuwa, commended Governor Okowa for his strides in creating young entrepreneurs through skills acquisition programmes, lamenting that some police officers lost their lives during the #EndSARS protests, leaving family members to bear the heavy burden of their bread winners.

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