By Millicent Ifeanyichukwu
The Ojodu Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos State has urged Nigerian youths to key into entrepreneurship and vocational skills rather than look for white-collar jobs, which are not available.
Mr Olusegun Odumbaku, the Executive Chairman of the council, gave the counsel at a news conference on Tuesday night in Lagos in commemoration of his third year in office.
Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says that recently the unemployment rate in Nigeria increased to 5.3 per cent in Q1 2024 from the 5.0 per cent recorded in Q3 2023.
Odumbaku said that embracing entrepreneurship and vocation skills, especially when the youths are still in school, would help them to contribute to economic growth, aside being self reliant and employers of labour.
“Let me call on all Nigerian youths to embrace entrepreneurship and be contributors to the economy of the country and not to expect government to contribute to them.
“In developed countries, it is the citizens of such countries that contribute to its development and not the other way round.
“Be exceptional in what you do, be resilient and persevere. Resolve to be a job creator and live with integrity. Get a business plan and give back to the society and train other people.
“You should also be innovative and you can raise money for your businesses through personal savings, support from family members and friends, bank loans, and cooperative societies,” he added.
The chairman expressed confidence that the youths had the potential to strive for entrepreneurial success and their enthusiasm could pave the way for a brighter future.
He noted that in the last three years of his administration, he had provided youths with opportunities, regardless of their backgrounds, and reaffirmed his commitment to education and skills development as key priorities.
Odumbaku noted that on assumption of office in July 2021, his administration was faced with various challenges and demands, which, he termed, as a cog in the wheel in terms of the social and economic life of the people.
According to him, however, these challenges have become a thing of the past because his administration took the bull by the horn and came up with the H.E.Y.S. Agenda.
He added that the agenda was also in tandem with the state’s T.H.E.M.E Agenda, saying that the agenda was a deliberate effort to allow the delivery of resources at the state level.
Odumbaku said that he had partnered with some organisations to produce and train hundreds of youths in mechanical, electrical and plumbing works, and provided working tools for them.
He said the council had employed 120 medical personnel including medical doctors, physicians, midwives, public health attendants in all its eight primary health centres to fill up the vacancies created by workers who had left the country.
“Not only that, we have our own in-house emergency medical records, which will allow for faster service delivery. That means with your cards, you can have access to any of our places.
“We have procured three ambulances, two ambulances directed by the local government, with two mobile tricycle ambulances.
“These tricycle ambulances, as you see, will allow for outreach missions to places where are very difficult to get to. If you all know the topology of our local hospitals,” he said.
He added that the council partnered with other companies and institutions within its area, to train its students to acquire industrial knowledge and industry network.
According to him, the council has a network that is training pupils across the LCDA, with 2,631 pupils trained so far in the primary school category, and 2,168 trained in the junior and secondary school category.