BY Abdulsalam Abdullah
Dikko Radda, governor of Katsina, says it will be difficult to address insecurity without tackling endemic poverty.
The governor said this on Wednesday during an event to mark his one-year in office.
“If you are unable to stop or to reduce poverty and provide the teeming youths job opportunities, it will be very difficult to address the issue of insecurity,” NAN quoted the governor as saying.
“It is true that you don’t need anybody to tell you that there’s poverty. We also understood that the problem of insecurity is attached to the problem of banditry and criminality that we have in our region.
“We promised to approach the problem in two ways — kinetic and non-kinetic approach.
“Just in the last three weeks, we launched the training of 3,000 youths across the state on mechatronics, who would be attached to various workshops.
“After their graduation, we’ll support them to set up their own workshops, so that they can provide job opportunities for our teeming youths in the state.”
Radda said the state is implementing community centres in villages to provide employment and support to young men and women.
“We are concentrating on the frontline and vulnerable local governments so that the government will address that issue squarely,” he added.
“Second way of fighting poverty is to improve productivity. Agriculture is our major occupation, that’s why we created Katsina State Irrigation authority.
“The aim is to have all year-round irrigation farming in the state, that will reduce redundancy and keep everybody busy.”
The governor said the importance of education for farmers cannot be over-emphasised.
He said upon assumption of office, there were only 72 extension workers in the state, but there are 722 now.
“Just yesterday, we gave each of them a motorcycle and other equipment to enable them move around to enlighten farmers on the way to improve their productivity,” he said.
“We also launched the sales of about 20,000 metric tons of fertilizer to farmers in the state at a very subsidised price.
“These are some of the things that we are putting in place to engage the farmers, the youths and the locals to be more productive, reduce the level of poverty and improve their livelihood.”
The governor added that the state government, through KT-CARES, has supported more than 6,100 farmers.
“We also supported women and youths with items worth over N2.5 billion to get them moving,” he added.
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