Senator representing Enugu East, Chimaroke Nnamani, has urged Nigerian youths to vote for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2023 election.
Nnamani said Tinubu has shown that he has what it takes to come up with youth friendly policies.
The Senator under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in a statement in Abuja on Thursday said the former Lagos State Governor on assumption of office in 1999 embarked on series of sustainable policies towards addressing the high unemployment rate, sense of instability, and youth bulge that were unusual challenges for the class of 1999.
He said Lagos at the time witness a significant influx of youths looking for better livelihood, adding that Tinubu recognized that it would have been disastrous if the youths were “left unattended, and therefore launched waves of reforms that re invigorated the economy and ensured that the vast majority of the working population, who were primarily youths, were employed”.
According to him, Tinubu established the Anti-Drug Misuse Campaign initiative to inform adolescents about the risks associated with illicit drugs use and pervasive drug abuse epidemic that successfully, destroyed many young people.
“To further address the challenges, Tinubu distributed over one million Naira in grants to each of the registered voluntary youth organizations as tokens of appreciation for their helpful efforts at reorientation and to encourage them to be more productive.
“Tinubu also increased the annual funding for the rehabilitation agencies to over three million Naira and subsequently created youth centers so that people would participate in educational and recreational activities that would help them develop healthy self-esteem in a secure and well-supervised environment.
“Vocational training centers were developed by Tinubu’s administration in March 2003 to rehabilitate hoodlums, neighborhood boys, and the homeless who were desirous of making a turning point in their lives by economically empowering them through training in professions like carpentry, shoemaking, hair dressing and tie-and-dye”, the Senator said.
Nnamani was governor of Enugu between 1999 and 2007 when Tinubu governed Lagos.