Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has said, in few days’ time, being Wednesday, 27th October, 2021, the State will be holding a ‘Police Youth Dialogue Session’ to deliberate on how to strengthen the relationship that exists between the two parties.
“In a few days, Wednesday, 27th October, 2021, to be precise, we will be organizing the first of its kind Lagos Police Youth Dialogue session, which will have in attendance over 1000 Police officers, and youths in the State, coming together to deliberate on how to strengthen the relationship between them, and create a synergy that will improve both their interaction and security situation in the State.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu, said this at the Lagos Youth Symposium, held at Alausa – Ikeja, Lagos, organized by the Ministry of Youths and Social Development, with the theme: ‘Rebuilding For Greatness, Peaceful Conflict Resolution.’
The Symposium, which attracted not less than 1,500 youth participants across the State, has the primary objective, according to the State’s Governor, to network with youths; with the aim of learning useful tips from their contributions, needed for rebuilding and achieving the greater Lagos dream.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, who recalled the October 20, 2020, #EndSars protest, stressed that, the agitation showed that, “Nigeria’s youths, make up the majority of the country’s population, which means that the youths are mostly affected by these statistics of poor people.”
He said, even though “The protest culminated into wanton destruction of government facilities and individual properties across the nation, after the riot on October 20th, forever known as the Black Tuesday”, “Nigerian youth have many reasons to demand for a better life and future, especially in a country where their ability to live and prosper is challenged by existing socio-economic and political conditions, among many other factors.”
Sanwo-Olu said, the proportion of people living in poverty continues to grow, especially as the Covid 19 rampage continues; adding that, “We embarked on rebuilding the city of Lagos gradually, not only the physical structures, but the citizen’s hope was also rekindled with various palliative measures.
He re-assured youths in the State that, some of the programmes which were initiated, are part of the State’s efforts to address issues bothering on youth development and empowerment. Sanwo-Olu reiterated that,
“Of utmost importance to us as a government, are the youth population of the state, who form the bulk of the population and its work force. We had embarked on the implementation of series of youth engagement, empowerment activities, and programmes through various Ministry, Department or Agencies, (MDAs) in the State, notably of which are Ministries of Wealth Creation and Employment; Arts, Tourism and Culture; Science and Technology; Agriculture; Commerce, Industry & Cooperatives…”
The Governor again said that, the remodeled, Youth Centres across the State, are designed to offer both recreational and sporting engagement for the youths, as well as, create opportunities for skill acquisition and vocational training.
“We have, in partnership with USAID, created two Youth Hubs at Lafiaji and Araromi Gbagada Youth Centers. These hubs offer leadership, livelihood and life skills to out-of-school youths aged between 15 to 24 years. With this partnership, we hope to reach 25,000 young people during its five-year tenure, with soft skills, leadership competence, social capital and resources, using an approach that enables them reach their full potentials in a safe and youth friendly environment.’
Governor Sanwo-Olu added,
“Some of these programmes include the Lagos State Youth Leadership Initiatives – Ibile Youth Academy, which produced Youth Ambassadors that are already making waves as change makers in their communities, implementing various life-touching and empowering pet projects, leveraging on local collaboration and resources. Notable among these programmes, also, is the Transformational Leadership Training for Young leaders, which was designed to upscale the leadership capacity of over 2000 participating young leaders physically and virtually in the three senatorial districts of the state.”