Date: 2011-07-06

The Kwara State Government has explained the rationale behind the use of voters’ card as a means of identification in the on-going registration of unemployed youths wishing to participate in the Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES).

KWABES was designed by the new administration of Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed to provide employment for a minimum of 2000 unemployed youths within the first 100 days of his administration and also generate reliable data on unemployed youth in the state with a view to finding lasting and sustainable solution to the menace.

The Employment Scheme should therefore not be mistaken for political patronage as it is meant for all youths residents in the State, including non-indigenes irrespective of party affiliation.

The government is harping on the biometrics identification used by INEC as an acknowledgement of its reliability, as the voter’s card remains the most recent credible identification that could be relied on.

The decision of government to identify eligible registrants with voters’ cards was therefore, to demonstrate the importance it attached to the scheme, warning that no one should trivialize or attempt to trivialize it based on primordial sentiments.

The scheme was put in place by the State Government primarily to benefit the youths, having realized the high prevalent of mass unemployment among them in order to stem the tide and checkmate youth restiveness in the State.

Nine days after the registration exercise took off in all the 16 Local Government Areas of the State, no fewer than 50,000 forms have so far been issued to youths of between the ages of 18-22 years, which indicates that the problem of unemployment among youths was far beyond expectation and therefore requires urgent attention from all and sundry irrespective of political leanings.

Abdulwahab Oba
Chief Press Secretary to the Kwara State Governor
06/07/2011