Eschew Drug Abuse, Jonathan’s Wife Tells N’Delta Youths
3 min read
Edith CHUKU
Wife of the former President of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan, has charged youths of the Niger Delta region and the country at large to avoid drug abuse.
The former first lady who represented former President Goodluck Jonathan as the Special Guest of honour, at the Ogbia Youth Summit in Ogbia, Bayelsa State noted that her charge was following the after effects of drug abuse.
Dame Jonathan insisted that peace and unity were needed to ensure sustainable development in Ogbia community and elsewhere in the Niger Delta region.
She enjoined the youths to liaise with the leaders in the bid to bring more development to the community.
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Also, the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku, encouraged the youths of the region, to embrace entrepreneurship as a springboard for sustainable development.
Ogbuku, in his keynote address stressed that for any community to achieve sustainable development and peace, the youths must be meaningfully engaged.
The NDDC boss urged the youths to key into the Commission’s Holistic Opportunity Projects of Engagement, HOPE, which he said was meant to identify interests of the youths for skills training. He also advised them to eschew cultism, drug abuse, thuggery and other social vices.
He applauded their vision to set up a youth hub and pledged to support the initiative, noting that collaboration was necessary for development efforts to flourish.
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According to him, “As Ogbia people, we should jettison individual interests for the collective interest of the people. This is the example we should learn from our leader, former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who declared that his political ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian; that is the Ogbia spirit.”
“What was handed to us by our founding fathers, is the identity of an Ogbia man. Whatever achievement we must have accomplished today, is the result of the legacies established by late Melford Okilo and other notable leaders. These legacies made us strive for greatness.”
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“It will be a bigger challenge for me if I can’t bring peace and development to Ogbia people. If we collaborate, we can partner and share ideas for success.”
Ogbuku further explained that focus on human capacity building was in line with the Renewed Hope agenda of the President Bola Tinubu administration.
In his welcome address, the President of Ogbia Youths, Mr. Johnny Jonathan, said the programme was put up to chart a new course in human capacity development among the youths.
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Jonathan, who commended the NDDC Chief Executive Officer for supporting youth programmes, stressed the need to educate young people on the importance of peace as a catalyst to economic and infrastructural development.
The youth President expressed confidence that the gains of the youth hub would be huge in the near future.