Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia
Governments at all levels have been advised to incorporate spiritual foundation into their youth empowerment programmes in order to achieve the desired results.
Rev. Emmanuel Ukoha gave the advice during an interaction with journalists on a facility visit to the Kingdom Bible College of the Word Foundation in Ozuabam, Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State.
He said that the government has a noble intention of empowering the youth of this nation but has not been getting the implementation right as the beneficiaries lacked the spiritual foundation to make good use of what they received.
“It’s like they (government) want to sow seeds on the land without clearing the grass,” he said, adding that the seeds would not germinate if sown on grass instead of land.
The cleric argued that if youths were trained in skills and given money to start making their livelihood, “they will squander it (because) they lack repentance and fear of God in their hearts”.
According to him, the government has over the years been throwing millions of naira down the drain on youth empowerment, yet “youths are still hungry” as they were not given the spiritual foundation to make a success of their empowerment.
The Kingdom Bible College of the Word Foundation, which trains youths in both gospel teachings and skills acquisition, currently has a student population of 1,500.
It has over the years been a training ground for youths equipped in various skills and also grounded in the word of God.
This education programme, which Rev. Ukoha referred to as “Gospel Agronomy” churns out youths who are pastors with various skills to fend for themselves without being a burden to their flocks.
“The major aim is to empower youths, equip them with skills to get what they eat (in order) to be free to preach the gospel with authority,” he said.
He asserted that “every student that graduates from here has a skill” such as farming, draughtsmanship, building, tiling, block moulding, welding, carpentry, architecture, among others.
The College is also involved in extensive farming on 119.8 hectares of land in different locations and, according to Ukoha, it has achieved self-sufficiency in food production.
Ukoha stated that the College has the capacity to guarantee food security for the entire Abia State if given the needed support by government, including provision of tractors, irrigation facilities and good roads for evacuation of farm produce.
“We’ve been looking forward to government partnerships. If they have us youths to train, we’ll welcome that,” he said, adding that the College has no foreign backing or affiliation whatsoever.
The cleric regretted Nigeria’s inability to attain self-sufficiency in food production despite the abundance of arable lands and manpower, saying that “leaders block agriculture from being our economic nerve centre”.
He said that the unserious disposition of Nigeria’s leaders to agriculture was an irony given that all of them usually retire to farming at the end of their public service.
