Taraba  Moves to Tackle Youth Restiveness, Economic Backwardness

Wole Ayodele in Jalingo

Taraba State Governor, Dr Agbu Kefas, has opened the first youth, economic and security summit in the state aimed at finding solutions to the alarming rate of youth restiveness in the state.

Besides, the summit, which is an initiative of the governor, was put together to generate ideas towards improving the economy of the state and find solutions to the perennial ethnic clashes and general insecurity confronting the state.

Declaring the summit  open, Governor Kefas urged the youths of the state to embrace entrepreneurship and innovative ideas that would grow the economy of the state rather than relying on government jobs.

Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Chief Gebon Kataps, the governor stressed that the summit, tagged: “Harvesting the potential in our youth, repositioning Taraba from potential to prosperity and securing our people” would create an enabling environment for investors to come and explore the economic potentials of the state.

Kefas disclosed that his administration would be youth-centred, saying 80 per cent of his appointees shall be between the ages of 25-40 years with good experience in public and the private sector.

“Youths are to be the centre stage of my administration. Already, I have sent out the criteria for the selection of people to be appointed into the government. The list of appointees will start coming in within the week and 80% of them must be youths and women,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Chairman of the organising committee of the summit, Mr. Benjamin Bako, stated that the summit was to change the narrative and the mentality of youths who believe that one must work with government, forgetting the available technologies to explore.

“We want to give our youths the technological skills in line with the global trend. We want to change the mentality of our youth that one must work with government by giving them entrepreneurial skills.

“Stakeholders have been drawn from across the state to chart a way forward towards ensuring the security of lives and property because, without security, we can not achieve our plans for the state,” he maintained.