Youth empowerment will reduce crime rate – Ooni

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, on Thursday in Ile-Ife said youth empowerment would help reduce crime rate in the country.
Ogunwusi stated this while addressing participants at the Ooni Ogunwusi Youth and Women Empowerment Summit 2019 and Vocational and Business Development Centre Fund Raising.
The forum had as theme: “Addressing Growing Youth Unemployment in Nigeria: The Significance of Made in Nigeria and Buy in Nigeria”.
The monarch told the participating youths that only the lazy ones among them would remain idle in Ile-Ife now that the initiatives on the ground cover all categories of individual across vital economic sectors.
“Opportunity comes but once, it is better for you to desist from laziness and wasting of your precious time by gambling and roaming about and  patronising unnecessary things which cannot add value to your lives.
“Your future is bright and I have dedicated my throne to youth empowerment and I am ready to utilise all in my capacity to ensure your greatness in life.
“It is better for you to brace up, be serious with whatever you can lay your hands upon,  be hard working,  dedicated and diligent in your doing for what is worth doing at allnis what is worth doing well.”
The monarch, who also urged physically challenged persons to brace up, pointed out that the stability of the Nigerian economy was dependent on the employment of the youths.
He said: “I hereby call on our teeming youths and women across Ile-Ife and beyond to take advantage of this initiative which is absolutely free to acquire necessary skills for absolute economic independence and all round prosperity.”
Earlier, Alaba Lawson, the President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, had lauded the Ooni for the initiatives.
Lawson, who was represented by Chief Nana Okuribido, a national officer of NACCIMA, had described the empowerment programme as a leading light out of the country’s worrisome unemployment rate.
She added that with such initiatives, Nigeria was on the threshold of what could be the greatest transformation in the country’s history.
Lawson, however, recommended that investment in people must be increased substantially, especially in the area of education, health and infrastructure.
Lawson added that the energy of the youths must be tapped by increasing opportunities where they could release their innovative and entrepreneurial capabilities.
Also speaking,  Olamide Awosunle,  the Special Assistant to the Ooni on Youth Development and Wealth Creation, lauded the monarch for his financial and material contributions to the initiatives.
He explained that beneficiaries of the initiatives were drawn from Ile Ife as well as some communities in Ekiti and Ondo states.
Awosunle gave an assurance that the Ooni would continue to serve all Nigerians regardless of their ethnic, religious and political affiliations.
Dignitaries at the event included Senator Babajide Omoworare, President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mansur Ahmed represented by Segun Ajay and traditional rulers.