Hooliganism: Makinde Is Curbing Youth Restiveness With Empowerment Schemes – Hon. Kazeem Bolarinwa

The unprecedented peace that has returned to Ibadan metropolis in the recent time has been linked with the proactive measures put in place by the state governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde.

The Special Assistant to Governor Makinde on Youths and Sports, Hon. Kazeem Bolarinwa, who also doubles as the ECOWAS Youth Ambassador, highlighted some empowerment schemes that have been put in place by Governor Seyi Makinde led administration with the aim of engaging the youths of the state with which has made youth restiveness a thing of the past in the state.

Kazeem Bolarinwa, a first-Class graduate of Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria further maintained that an idle hands is devil’s workshop, noted that the best government can do is to get them engaged.

He said, What I’m saying in essence is that government realized the those youths can make sense and contribute to the growth and development of the society only when they have something productive doing, there will be limited time for them to engage in vandalism or hooliganism or anything of that nature.

Kazeem Bolarinwa a member of the Chartered Institute of Corporate Mentoring and Coaching Nigeria (CICMCN), in his analysis said, his Excellency has engaged the youth with the YEAP project which means Youth Entrepreneurship in Agriculture Project, stressing that the initiative is tends to engage the youths in agriculture as well as businesses that related to agricultural activities.

“One thing is having an idea of what to plant another thing is to know the technicalities behind it, another thing is also knowing how to make money out of it, and that is what agribusiness is all about, largely thousands of youths in Oyo State have been engaged with and benefitted from this program and that has helped us in the State to reduced hooliganism to a very large extent.

“Another thing is sensitization, a lot of sensitization programmes are currently ongoing by different ministries and officies of the SAs on how to put an end to hooliganism in the state, especially in Ibadan metropolis, also we have programmes that tends to enlighten the youths against abuse of drugs, for example my office in collaboration with the office of Special Assistant to Governor on Community Matters have been doing a lot on that for few months and with that, we have been able to conquer the high rate of drug abuse in Oyo State, and that is why you hardly see any youth that will tarnish the image of Oyo State.” Bolarinwa said.

Ambassador Bolarinwa, who was the Chief Executive Officer and Lead Consultant and Training Facilitator at Ireign Classique Consult Nigeria, for a period of two years before delved into politics and good governance advocacy in 2018, further stressed that Governor Makinde has done a lot in intensify the security architecture of the state, which also has provided job opportunities for youths who were engaged into the Amotekun Corps.

“For now with the presence of Amotekun corps and the current empowerment of the state police Operatives and other security agencies in the state, we are now having rapid response to any bridge of law and order in any part of the state, these are possible

“Another thing that has helped in curbing the youth restiveness in the state is intensive security, His Excellency had done a lot to intensify security of the state, he has empower the security outfits of the state, especially the Amotekun and the Police Operatives and that is why we see we have rapid response to any bridge of law and order in any part of the state, these are some of the measures that have been put in place by the Governor to curb the youth restiveness in the state.

“My office in collaboration with other offices because we have seen that the burden on ground is beyond one office, we have seen the reason why we need to collaborate with each other for us to achieve long lasting solution to the problems bedeviling the youths, and that I why my office is working with the office of SA Community and SA BESDA, as we all know that BESDA has to do with education too, and of course BESDA is saddles with the responsibility of lads and youths who are out of schools.

“We are also in partnership with some NGOs too, for instance the YERI program that is ongoing, which is Youth Empowerment Rewind Initiative, we are on it with NGO’s and we believe together we can achieve it, I hope basically what we are currently working on is proffering lasting solution to the issue of drug abuse in the state and that is what we have been doing for a while now, you will see that the rate at which we see people abusing drugs and even being proud about it has reduced in the state, that is one of the efforts of this office in collaboration with other stakeholders. Kazeem said.

Ambassador Bolarinwa in his response to the rating of the current administration in the state said, “This government has done excellently well compared to previous administrations, if you want to rate something you must have a parameter you will based it on, if you are to look at the government of the past, I will rate this government hundred percent because this present administration has done what the previous have not been able to do. So this government within two years in office has done excellently well, there is no unprecedented performance like ours, but irrespective of how well we have done we can still perform better, because there is always room for change.

“We still have more to deliver in the coming years and we still have more to do for our people, hopefully in the next tenure.

While speaking on his Ecowas Ambassador appointment, Bolarinwa said, my Ecowas Youth Ambassador came due to the fact that Ecowas community sees that I have performed and have added value to my constituency which is the youth. They realized that this office has performed selflessly and still performing performing tirelessly and we are still ready to give it all to the youth, and like I said before that to whom much is given, much is expected, God just used the ambassador award for me as an encourage to do more, to continue to give more to the youth constituency, and upon the confirment of the award I said what I have been able to do so far is a tip of an iceberg, that the entire community and the Africa at large should expect more from me.

Bolarinwa, an experienced Project Management Facilitator also said that he has used his office as SA to Governor on Youths and Sports, to trained over 6,000 graduates and professionals. Also as a Health and Safety Executive (HSE), he has trained over 5,000 graduates and professionals who were consequently certified and pronounced competent in accordance to global best practice.

Bolarinwa maintained that his experience he obtained from various organizations as well as the Professional trainings in Hazard Identification Course at the Oil and Gas Education and Research Academy and the training he received at the Health, Safety and Environment by the Joint Professionals Training and Supports Int’l (JPTS) has helped in assisting numbers of youths in the state for better networking and taking good care of their needs.