Courtesies.

I consider it my honour and privilege to be among you this morning on this august occasion of the National Youth Conference on Agriculture, which you have tagged "KWARA 2006". I welcome all the delegates to Kwara, "the State of Harmony " and hope that the cleanliness and serenity of our environment and the hospitality of our people will contribute to making this a worthwhile and truly memorable conference.

The Youth are an important segment of the society. They are the future and hope of our world, and the pillars of development of any nation. That is the reason why no nation can afford to ignore the youth or toy with their education and development. Their creativity, energy and passion must be properly directed if they are to assume their proper role as a positive force in nation building.

It is in this respect that I wish to commend the leadership of the National Youth Council of Nigeria for organising this conference, which I believe is capable of exposing the teeming youth of Nigeria to the great opportunities that abound in the Agriculture sector. Particularly, I am impressed with the theme of the conference, which is "Promoting Agriculture among Nigerian Youth as a Tool for Poverty Eradication". This conference is a clear indication that Nigerian youth have come of age, as their attention is shifting to the very serious issue of how they can independently employ their knowledge and energy to empower themselves in an age where government everywhere is redefining its role within the economy as that of a facilitator.

As a young person myself and a Friend of the Nigerian Youth (FNY), I fully understand the challenges that confront the Youth of our country. These include poor education, unemployment, lack of access to capital and low involvement in the national decision making process. In Kwara State , we have taken important steps to assist the youth in meeting these challenges of development. We have introduced programmes to improve the quality of education at the various levels, assisted post-primary school students in the payment of examination fees and provided bursary allowances to all students of Kwara indigene in higher institutions. We also established a special unit to coordinate the issue of employment and business investments for youths. This unit also supervises the Malete Youth Farm where over 100 young men and women are undergoing training on integrated farming and farm management, at the end of which training they would be assisted to establish their own farms.

It is because of our concern as a government for the youth and for the future of our nation that I had no hesitation to accept your request to host this event. I therefore hope that the outcome of this conference would justify our gesture by achieving the objectives for which the National Youth Council has organised it.

I am sure that many of you in this audience are aware that since the inception of our Administration in 2003, Kwara State has accorded priority to the development of Agriculture. This is because of our conviction that the salvation of our national economy depends on the transformation of this sector to reduce poverty and to create wealth on a sustainable basis for our people. I am proud of the well-known success story that is being told of our efforts in this direction in Kwara State and how people outside the state are drawing inspiration and focusing their attention on the sector. We are in particular grateful to President Olusegun Obasanjo who has shown great leadership and formulated policies to reverse the fortunes of agriculture in Nigeria and make it attractive to investment.

Once again I implore you all to make good use of the opportunities this conference offers you to develop interest in agriculture. If you do, I assure you that you would never regret. May Almighty Allah guide and help you all.

On this note, I wish to thank you yet again for picking Kwara State for this important programme. I wish you all fruitful deliberation and safe journey back to your various destinations at the end of the conference.

Thank you all and God bless.