NO RICE FOR YOUTH CAUCUS; LEO LEO UMANA IS RIGHT

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NO RICE FOR YOUTH CAUCUS; LEO LEO UMANA IS RIGHT

By Aniebiet Francis

I woke up to a post from Leo Leo Umana highlighting the difference between Pastor Umo Eno’s administration and previous administrations in Christmas rice sharing, and I can’t help but agree with him. Leo is right: the Pastor Umo-led administration is different from the past administrations, and the people who voted him into power are happy with the changes that have accompanied his administration.

During the electioneering process, aspirants and candidates with track records of sharing rice to youth caucuses and “touching lives” were on the ballot paper. However, Akwa Ibom people chose a man who wasn’t popular for sharing rice but stood out with a proven record of starting and growing businesses—a man with a healthy business mindset. Akwa Ibomites were tired of the jamboree style of governance that gave youth caucus members access to bags of rice during Christmas holidays but failed to address our collective issues, such as unemployment and insecurity.

When Pastor Umo Eno was campaigning for the office of the Governor, he never promised to share rice with youth caucus members across the 31 Local Government Areas. Instead, he promised to prioritize the welfare of citizens by raising the quality of their lives. He promised to empower Akwa Ibom youths to become assets to the government and not liabilities relying on the government for Christmas rice in December.

Pastor Umo, who has been hailed for approaching governance with a business mindset, replaced the short-term “carnival-like Christmas Rice Sharing” at Christ the King Primary School on Wellington Bassey Way with several long-term impactful projects and programs. At the top of that list is the Ibom LED Entrepreneurship Accelerator Programme, designed to support and nurture entrepreneurs by promoting their business management skills and sustainable growth. The programme is open to both existing and aspiring entrepreneurs. It provides them with the necessary training, mentoring, and funding to transform their ideas into successful businesses.

One thousand two hundred Akwa Ibom youths have been successfully trained at IBOM-LED and empowered with five hundred thousand naira as business support. My Christmas dress was designed by a beneficiary of that empowerment. When I visited her shop for pickup, she told me how she used the five hundred thousand naira to buy one of the industrial sewing machines. She runs a ready-to-wear outfit and is contributing to the labor market with her staff strength. Four hundred female youths have graduated from the programme and are awaiting their business support of seven hundred and fifty thousand naira.

The Governor also organized an all-inclusive “Thank You Rally” for Akwa Ibom youths on September 10, 2024, and used the occasion to further unveil his plans for employment opportunities, training, and other welfare packages for Akwa Ibom youths.

One of the success stories of that Thank You Rally is the Employment Portal, where sixty thousand youths will be selected—without being members of youth caucus—and given a one-off business support of fifty thousand naira while waiting for employment from the civil service and private companies operating in the state. Fifteen thousand beneficiaries of this scheme have already been recorded.

The youths have been the greatest beneficiaries of this administration. N310m was given by the Governor to be shared to youths from the 31 LGAs. The SSA to the Governor on youth Mobilisation, Mr Iniobong Akpan captured in his appreciation speech to the Governor on the day business grants were given to youths.

If we were to state all the youths have benefited from this administration from May 29, 2023, other demographics will be envious of them.

On the subject of marriage, Leo is a major beneficiary of the “marriage rain” in this golden era—a testimony so evident in his regular posts of intending couples bringing wine and Ankara to his temple as their bishop.

Recall that Pastor Umo Eno holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration. He can’t run a government where individuals are more powerful than the system, such that a commissioner would be begging youth caucus members for attention. That is an administrative flaw.

The Pastor Umo-led administration is not a government of youth caucuses but a government of Akwa Ibomites. Governor Umo Eno sent twenty bags of rice to each of the 2,272 villages in the state, with clear instructions that government officials and supporters of this administration should augment that number with theirs and share them with Akwa Ibomites. I have seen this instruction being carried out in Oruk Anam, Uruan, Mkpat Enin, Ini, Uyo, and other areas. Faith Essien, a major player in the agro-business sector, commended Pastor Umo Eno and his lieutenants for purchasing a record-breaking quantity of rice from her company.

These bags of rice are not shared to spirits, nor shared outside of the state. Akwa Ibomites are the beneficiaries. He might not be included in the beneficiaries’ list because the system expects him to take a benefactor role by now, besides, a generation after his are the leaders of youths structures in the state and are working in line with Pastor Umo Eno’s vision for our dear state.

It is trite to note that, at the beginning of this year, Governor adopted a grassroot approach to reach the people in local communities. The Food Security programme of The Bulk Purchase Agency did three rounds of food distribution across the state. The first round was for the vulnerable captured in the social register, the second and third rounds were sent to two hundred and seventy villages of Akwa Ibom State. Is Leo Umana saying Pastor Umo Eno should have deprived this number of Akwa Ibomites food and share bags of rice among a tiny percentage of Akwa Ibomites with the “Youth Caucus” tag?

It is also worthy of note that the billions of naira Governor Eno has released as welfare packages for civil servants and pensioners and monthly stipends for our aged parents in Arise Elders Care could share rice to youths on a monthly basis.

A quick reminder: while his membership in youth caucus gave him Christmas largesse, backlogs of pensions and gratuities were accumulating. It takes good administrative and management skills to carry both youths and elders along in the scheme of things.

Dr. Eno has intentionally moved the state from the era of sharing money and bags of rice to youth caucus members to the era of sustainable development initiatives/projects for Akwa Ibom youths.

A few years from now, this approach will birth economically empowered youths who will share rice in villages and orphanages in honor of Pastor Umo Eno.

Let’s refrain from making posts capable of pitching supporters of the previous administrations against supporters of the present administration, while setting up the Governor for unnecessary social media drama.

#TheGoldenEraAndYou
#AriseAgenda
#GovernorUmoEno
#AmazingAniebietFrancis

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