Deputy Governor of Delta State, Sir Monday Onyeme, has challenged Nigerians to prepare for population upsurge in line with the prediction of the United Nations.
Onyeme made the call on Saturday at Akure, Ondo State during the presentation of Lion Dr. Kofoworola Iyabo, as Lions Club District 404 A-4 District Governor.
Onyeme who was the Chairman of occasion, stated that “the United Nations predicted that by 2050, Nigeria will be the fourth most populated country on earth with 375 million people and the youths accounting for about 262 million of the population.
“From today, year 2050 is twenty seven years away, so, which type of leaders are we going to have in the year 2050? How are we preparing our youths for future challenges and what measures are we putting in place for them to be positively engaged at all times?
“This is why we should key into any project that will equip the youths as we are here to do today. In Delta State, we believe in catching them young. So, our administration has several programmes to ensure that the youths at all times are positively engaged.
“In the area of sports development, there are annual sporting competitions for pupils of primary schools to university levels, we have several skill acquisition and empowerment programmes that ensure that our youths are not only equipped with necessary skills, they are also, financed and mentored for them to be successful in their businesses which ranges from agriculture to establishment of industries. Several institutions of higher learning dots the nooks and crannies of our state and we keep rolling out incentives for the youths to be properly equipped for future challenges.”
Onyeme lauded Lions Club for having the establishment of youth empowerment and skills acquisition centre as one of the objectives for the programme.
He said that Lions Club International, was founded in 1917 and it is the world’s largest service organization, with more than 1.5 million members in no less than 70,000 club spread out in more than 200 countries and geographical areas of the world and urged members of the club to contribute to the building of the skill acquisition programme.
“Without mincing words, I am confident that today’s gathering is very significant for members of Lion’s Club and as a past District Governor, it is my joy and privilege to be at this special occasion as Chairman.
“I congratulate Lion Dr. Kofoworola Iyabo Jegede, PMJF, NLCF, who is being presented today as Lions Club District 404 A-4 District Governor.
“When I accepted to be the Chairman of this occasion, I recalled with nostalgia my public presentation as a District Governor in 2018. I can still recall vividly that the theme for the 2018/2019 Lions Year, was, “Empowerment Through Service,” and we focused on impacting positively on the poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, and underprivileged in our society.
“We ensured free diabetes screening and awareness, pediatric cancer awareness campaign, free cornea transplant and cataract surgery, relieving hunger, tree planting and other environmental friendly projects. It is on record too that we procured and distributed textbooks to primary and secondary schools as well as some tertiary institutions in our area of coverage and most importantly, raised awareness against open defecation as we built a lot of public conveniences, equipped with boreholes in our public schools, motor parks, markets, among others.
“My achievements as a District Governor was as a result of your support and today, we are here to build a youth empowerment and skills acquisition centre, through our collective support.
“As the foundation of every society, no government can toy with the development of the youths. This is because, it is what the youths are equipped with that they implement when they grow up, that is why the Holy Bible admonished us in the book of Proverbs chapter 22 verse 6 that we should train our children in the way they should go and when they are old, they will not depart from it.
“Permit me to say that while we make selfless contributions towards the project, we should also, in our own little ways, encourage our youths to be positively engaged at all times to check societal ills and enthrone a society that we all will be proud of.”
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