The Special Adviser to the President on the Niger Delta, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd) has said that it is the duty of communities in the Niger Delta, Government and oil companies to provide jobs for the youths in the Region. Addressing the chiefs, elders, women and youth groups of George Town, Okrika, Rivers State on Friday, he said it is in the enlightened interest of all to engage the youths if the Region and the country is to have an assured future. He was speaking at the occasion of the handover of the first integrated cluster farm to a cooperative of twenty Beneficiaries of the Presidential Amnesty Programme.
The model farm which was fully funded by the Programme has 30 Ponds, one Run-off Earthen Pond, 5000 Bird Poultry including Broiler and Layers, Free Range, Cropping and Processing Sections,1 Administration and Sales Office, 2 Feed Stores, 2 Implement Stores and one Control Room.
Boroh told the Beneficiaries that they have a once in a life time opportunity not just to make a decent living for themselves and their families but also to employ a number of the unemployed. He said the Amnesty Office was further empowering the Beneficiaries by handing over to them as a start off package, 1000 fingerlings to 2000 post fingerlings, 100 Point of Lay Birds and an additional 200 broilers, 10 Piglets and a Crop Section: with Cucumber, Pepper, Pumpkin and Okra.
General Boroh who also visited some individual aquaculture holdings in Okrika funded by the Amnesty Programme, said the modern cluster farm for which the Rivers State government has given a registration as “Okrika Agro Farmers 105 Cooperative and Investment and Credit Society Limited” will be replicated in other parts of the Niger Delta.
The George Town Traditional leader, Chief Akuro Richard George in his response thanked the Presidential Amnesty Programme under General Boroh for extending “ Federal presence” to George Town. He said the project has established a bond between the people and the Federal Government and urged that a skills acquisition centre be established by the Presidential Amnesty Office in George Town to cater for lots of unemployed youths. Chief George, a former First Vice President of the Nigeria Bar Association said “The problem of the Niger Delta has nothing to do with the party you belong to, it is a collective challenge.” He urged other federal, state and local government agencies to collaborate for the development of the Region and the country and particularly appealed for the completion of roads in the town by the Federal government intervention agency.
The Songhai Farms which trained the Beneficiaries and helped establish the cluster farm said it would spend the next three months to mentor the Beneficiaries. Its General Manager, Mr. Tammy Jaja said the model farm is based on a zero-waste technology in which the use of waste material in one section is a critical input in another.
Owei Lakemfa.
Head, Media.
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