By; PATRICK TITUS Uyo
Akwa Ibom State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno on Tuesday redeemed his cash reward promise to youths for their mass boycott of recent #EndBadGovernance protest in the state.
At an event tagged: “Thank you” held at Uyo Township Stadium, Governor Eno announced N310 million cash donation to youths in the 31 local government areas of the state for obedience to his appeal to shun the protest.
The money according to the Governor, would be shared at the rate of N10 million per local government area.
Recalled that the governor in a meeting with stakeholders on eve of day one of the #EndBadGovernance in Uyo had promised to appreciate youths of the state if they shunned the nationwide protest held from 1st to 10th August across the country.
The appeal by the Governor led to apathy to the protest which ended in Akwa Ibom within just two days as the few youths who dared to come out were also overwhelmed by intimidation from a joint security team coordinated by the Police Command in the state.
His words, “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 plea not to join the protest, not because we don’t believe in protest 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 past 37 years of the creation of our state to put these infrastructure in place. And one minute of anger can destroy all of these hard works.
“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, of unemployment, pains and high price of food. We try within resources available in our state to address them to the benefit of our people.”
In an agreement with the youths on the things his administration would do for Akwa Ibom youths in the next one year, Governor Eno 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 they 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 will open an employment portal for all youths in Akwa Ibom. When you register, it will automatically 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 basis 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. There is no way you get this money twice.”
Stakeholders at the event, urged the Governor to push for completion of the former Governor Obong Victor Attah initiated Ibom Science Park as tool for fast tracking technological growth of the state but abandoned by successive administration after billions of naira have been poured into it.
