If the main focus is to prevent poverty by mass-scaling opportunities for everyone caused by lack of opportunity and preparedness in our society, then, this crazy idea of institutionalizing poverty viz-a-viz sharing of motorcycle (Okadas), grinding machines, clippers, wheelbarrows which has forced many hard-working, loyal party members and citizens to the difficult task of reducing them to a cease pool of the poorest of the poor and yet it’s been taunted as empowerment, it’s strategically unwise. The result is that communities will not experience inclusive growth that can spur rapid growth. In other words, creating value and markets of the future for all stakeholders–youth, people with disabilities, women workers, and community-based youth groups is not a zero-sum game. Alas, it’s sickening when we can use the same resources to focus on more impactful ideas. Isn’t that crazy? I consider this too sacrilegious for it water down the very meaning of poverty alleviation and rather it magnifies poverty in all its forms.
In a very practical sense, one way to understand the potential impact of youth empowerment is to recognize the place of incentives and modern training platforms since factory and civil jobs are few. And to make up for the bad gap of unemployment and lack of opportunity are to invest in our youth through incentives, innovation, and training and not give people motorcycles, clippers, and grinding machines that have no long economic impact on their life and the society.
Every time a politician or the so-called mushroom foundations shares motorcycles (Okadas), grinding machines, etc under the pretense of poverty alleviation, I feel sad, because the very idea of empowerment is about assisting people, repositioning, upskilling, retooling, and equipping them with a lifetime opportunity that can make up for bad fiscal and financial-economics policy of the government to make citizens financially independent and leads them out of poverty. I have asked myself several times from which school of thought did we learn that to fight poverty, we have to institutionalize it?
What will I do differently?
At the core of it, sitting atop my agenda is the need to have a platform where our youths can be exposed to the knowledge of the future and train them on some skillful jobs to empower them for life. Sometimes, it is not the immediate effect; it is the effect that happens two or three years later that we should focus on. I am not going to share Okadas with my fellow youth and tag it as poverty alleviation. I will instead create training hubs through a partnership with soft skills hubs, like Andela, Cowries, etc, to get youths trained and exposed to opportunities in tech such as data science, data analysis, automation, robotics, photography cinematography, and photo editing. On the other hand– hard skills like auto mechanics, fashion designing, pipe welding and fabrication, recycling, catering, and many others.
We are in the age of specialization and professionalism, therefore training our youth, people with disabilities, and women on a spectrum of knowledge and exposing them to skills and competencies training will set them up for life in the sought after knowledge of the future as a professional both in soft and hard skills. This will serve as building blocks and leverage for the future on how to make money and sign them up for life opportunities which in my opinion is one of the best ways to institutionalize wealth, which is better than giving people petty money, motorcycles (death sentence), and grinding machines.
As we know success in a business venture has its acknowledged impact on society, but nothing is more important than specialization. As they say, necessity is the mother of inventions. The lack of a strong training system that settles apprenticeship at the end of training with substantial cash, startup capital, and tools has rendered many of our youths useless while some abandon their training for Okada for the fear of the unknown. As people’s representatives should this continue to be encouraged in our societies when it can be curtailed? To reverse this, our youth will not only be taught the whole spectrum of available knowledge, but I will also provide them with incentives. They will be empowered with necessary loans and equipment, enabling them to develop and enrich our community by establishing successful ventures for their craft.
That said, I discovered the missing link in our Apprenticeship System. I have noted that the Igbo apprenticeship system could be the reason why an average Igbo apprentice is more successful than their counterpart elsewhere may not be far from the fact that IAS provides better protection, mentorship, and market exposure to the young people through their masters. For instance, an average Yoruba apprentice has a tale of woefulness after throwing up extravagant freedom party; without any settlement funds and tools to fall back on after serving for years and only got his freedom without tools to practice the craft or trade, he or she has learned through thick and thin while an average Igbo would rather invest this capital than to throw unnecessary party till his(er) businessmen begin to take form. This among other factors like lack of settlement plan has turned many talented and brilliant artisans into Okada riders. Should we continue to encourage this through the ill-thought process of poverty-making alleviation of Okada sharing?
There are many lessons for us to learn from the IAS system that could elicit rapid changes in our contemporary society like reducing poverty, unemployment, and fraud and this prompted me to see the need should I become your legislator to sponsor a bill for the establishment of Government Technical Training Institute across the three senatorial districts in the state where youth will not only be exposed to the best training, they will be trained in specialized fields capable of promoting their initiatives and entrepreneurial prowess that will transform their bright ideas into successful profit-making ventures. This becomes important because the jobs for school leavers are almost non-existent. The available ones hardly pay, and since the bulk of our youth falls within this category, to address this and stem the tide of this unemployment, I will sponsor a bill for the establishment of Government Technical Training Institute in the three senatorial districts of our dear state where secondary school leavers, University and Polytechnics students and graduate can be trained on some skillful jobs and equip them with a substantial amount, tools as well as a mentorship program to shape their future and thinking. This will not only reduce poverty but will also reduce our unemployment profile. I will always strive to make this policy my top priority, based on my belief that in our youth lies our competitive advantage and their development is key to our future success.
Largely, if this law scales through into a homogenous training institution where an individual can have the opportunity to learn the mechanics of the knowledge of the future and business secrets especially, the youth, women, and people with disabilities no matter how small will help reposition individuals financially. If for instance, the Igbo apprentice system is incorporated as an institution across our three senatorial districts by the state government, not only youth are going to be trained on relevant skill set but at the end of their training, they can be incorporated into ministries, departments, and agencies where they will have opportunity to have hands-on experience as it was in the first and second republic to carry out public maintenance of government utilities or settle them immediately at end of their training with tools and incentive to become a new set of ‘masters’ who could pass on the experience and knowledge to another set of trainees with relevant tools and exposure with government support in terms of the short loan and incentives. This will not only grant wealth creation and knowledge sharing amongst youth but guarantee lifelong learning opportunities with incentives instead of sharing clippers, grinding machines that have no long-term economic benefits to the beneficiary.
One major problem with many of our politicians is not a lack of trying per se but I think the major source of our problem is the lack of executing ideas generators that can reduce the poverty index and institutionalized wealth creation through the Yoruba philosophical belief of Ise L’ogun Ise, more reason there is a dart of hard work among the youth because those leading us have continued to bastardize the only ice on the cake that once makes us a unique homogenous tribe.
As a millennial, it will be a slap on my face if by your power of vote I become your next representative at the state House of Assembly and I continue the usual barbaric sharing of motorcycles, clippers, grinding machines and tag it as a poverty alleviation scheme as it is. Take, for instance, Okada is a problem to be solved itself, because it has become a vagary of the inclement syndrome among our youth who see it as a means to earn a living instead of learning a craft. Therefore Okada can’t be a solution to the poverty problem when it is a problem to be solved in our community.
If so, instead of sharing clippers, grinding machines, or okada as a throw-up scheme to escape poverty, I would rather settle for the training of our youth even if the number is not more than a hundred for its long-term benefits outnumbering its immediate gain.
To me, institutionalized apprenticeship programs remains a powerful tool to fight unemployment, wealth creation, financial inclusion amongst others, and not sharing of an okada, grinding Machine, and usual sewing machines to faithful party members and citizens who don’t have the prerequisite training in clothes making, and there there is no plan for post-training and follow-up on such equipment is simply ae of taxpayers money which will result to no economic and value creation.
We must rethink!
Thanks
Adediji Wasiu Adeshina
An aspirant for Oyo State House of Assembly. Ibarapa East Constituency.
