Edo State Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, on Sunday attributed the challenges facing Nigeria to the government’s inability to provide the enabling environment for enterprising Nigerians to thrive.
Speaking at the empowerment programme of Olere Women Empowerment Initiative (OWEI) in Benin City, Shiabu said developed countries have been able to get to the level they are because their governments have been able to provide the needed environment for the private sector to prosper.
He urged recipients of the empowerment to translate their training into not just earning a living but employing people.
He said: “We must continually educate ourselves and create awareness that the private sector does things better. God given talents in our young men and women have to be harnessed and in doing that, programmes like this have to be encouraged. For us to get out of the situation we are in now, some of us that God has blessed must emulate the Olere group to get our young ones out there.
“You must not sell these items because we have had experiences in the past where people will go back and sell their packs to the sellers at half the price.
“Many of us travel out and see that most of the economies of these countries we visit are driven by the private sector. We are not doing well in Nigeria because the government is not providing the enabling environment for people to flourish.”
On her part, the initiator of the programme, Hajia Maryam Abubakar, said the best security that can be provided is engaging youths, women and children.
“If you don’t look after our people particularly youth, women and children, there will be a problem, and you will not have peace. It is easier to take care of our youths than to hire security to protect us. If I am able to hire security to protect myself, what about my four children, what about my family members so the best security is to provide and take care of these people,” she said.
One of the guest lecturers at the event, Emmauel Usoh speaking on “Leadership development skills for women and youths” said “Your benefactor has spent so much to put you where you are today but you need to do more to put yourself where you want to be tomorrow.”
The supervisor of the training and empowerment programma, Mrs Amidat Ilegar Okoh, said 34 people benefited from the empowerment and they were selected from the three senatorial districts in the state and they were trained in various fields like bag making, sewing and other