Ebonyi Involves Youths, Women in Governance to Curb Restiveness

The Ebonyi State Government has taken deliberate steps to enhance the involvement of youths and women in the governance process in order to curb restiveness across the state.

This was disclosed by Ebonyi State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Uche Orji, who acknowledged that marginalisation and inability to involve the critical mass in the governance process by past administrations were responsible for the widespread anger in the polity.

Orji said: “Nigerians knows that security is not politics. We must de-emphasise politics in security matters. The issue of restiveness, communal clashes, banditry and joblessness are products of years of misrule that did not start today or under the APC administration. It is an accumulated grievance of the youths, men and women across the nation. The South-east is not an exception.”

He pointed out that the way out is for all Nigerians “to work together as a people to know where we got it wrong. We are pretty sure in Ebonyi State the governor understands where we got it wrong, as a people. And that is the inability of previous governments to engage the youths in the governance process. We call it women mainstreaming and also youth mainstreaming in politics and that the governor has not taken for granted.”

He also explained how the Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. Dave Umahi, is ensuring inclusiveness in governance. “If you look at the number of executive council members in Ebonyi state we’re about 110. No state has that number. And out of that, 80 per cent are not more than 40 years. And this is an example of youth mainstreaming in politics. The same applies to women. We have 13 local government areas.

“Every local government has a female vice-chairman compulsorily. And we have in every zone not less than one female council chairman. It never happened in history. We have other positions reserved for women compulsorily just to encourage them. Today we have wonderful women that are really shining, unlike before when they had an inferiority complex and couldn’t contend with other women in other jurisdictions,” he said.

Orji also disclosed that Umahi is running a mentorship programme in the art of governance that has 4,000 participants who are made up of appointees like “technical assistance, executive assistants and senior technical assistance. About 4000 of them and that is to mentor them in the act of governance without thinking about 2023.”

He said that the governor has his supporters solidly behind him in spite of decamping from the Peoples’ Democratic PARTY (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“We are together with the governor in his decision to go to a party of national spread. Knowing our background and where we are coming from, the South-east cannot afford to suffer double jeopardy of a geographical and political minority.

“It’s going to be double jeopardy. And so the governor’s decision to go to the APC is welcomed. And we believe that other states are beginning to appreciate the need to queue behind the governor in this decision,” the commissioner said.

Orji acknowledged that “one good thing about that is that we will have a better platform to negotiate on issues of national interest. We’ll have a better platform to express our feelings over agitations and marginalisation that we have suffered over the years because two wrongs cannot make a right.

“We need to be at the right platform to really negotiate. So, it is going to help a lot. Our governor is actually a nationalist par excellence by birth and by inclination. He believes in one Nigeria, where there is love, peace, unity and equity.”

Orji said that Umahi reactivated moribund rice mills in the state to maximise its comparative advantage in rice production. “When the governor came on board, seeing our comparative advantage in rice production, he had to aggressively pursue the reactivation of the existing rice milling plants. Ebonyi has the record as a state with the highest number of individually owned rice mill clusters in Africa.

“It is in the Guinness Book of Records. But it is not as modernised as it should be. The governor had to really modernise those rice milling plants. Beyond that, the governor also enhanced the capacity of government-owned rice milling plants. Today, we have a total of 32 metric tonnes capacity per hour. We have about 38 metric tonnes of parboiling plants,” he stated.

He clarified that Ebonyi is currently the number three rice producing state in the country with a total of 80 metric tonnes capacity fertiliser blending plant, which has made Ebonyi the centre of excellence for the production of NPK fertiliser and all of that for the South-east and South-south.

“And of course, we are participating in the Presidential Agricultural Initiative because of that advantage. Today we have tried to use what we call Waste to Wealth Recycling Plant that is aimed at recycling our waste in agriculture so that we can use it to produce other by-products,” he explained.