Edo deputy governor blames economic woes on lack of enabling environment for enterprising Nigerians

The deputy governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu, over the weekend attributed the nation’s economic woes to the inability of the government to provide an enabling environment for enterprising Nigerians to thrive.

Shaibu, who spoke at the empowerment programme of Olere Women Empowerment Initiative (OWEI), held in Benin City, said the developed countries had been able to get to the level they are because their governments had been able to provide the needed environment for the private sector to prosper, just as he urged the recipients of the empowerment to translate their training into not just earning a living but employing other people.

According to him, for Nigeria to get over the present economic challenges, “We must continually educate ourselves and create awareness that the private sector does things better. God-given talents in our young men and women have to be harnessed and in doing that, programmes like this have to be encouraged. For us to get out of the situation we are in now, some of us that God has blessed must emulate the Olere group to get our young ones out there”.

He admonished the beneficiaries not to sell these items given to them, noting that in the past, “we have had experiences where people will go back and sell their packs to the buyers at half the price”.

“Many of us travel out and see that most of the economies of these countries we visit are driven by the private sector. We are not doing well in Nigeria because the government is not providing the enabling environment for people to flourish”, the deputy governor reiterated. 

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In her remarks, the initiator of the programme, Hajia Maryam Abubakar, said the best security that could be provided is by engaging youths, women and children, stressing, “If you don’t look after our people, particularly the youth, women and children, there will be a problem, and you will not have peace. It is easier to take care of our youths than to hire security to protect us. If I am able to hire security to protect myself, what about my four children, what about my family members so the best security is to provide and take care of these people”.

One of the guest lecturers at the event, Emmauel Usoh, who spoke  on the topic: “Leadership Development Skills for Women and Youths”, said “Your benefactor has spent so much to put you where you are today but you need to do more to put yourself where you want to be tomorrow”

The supervisor of the training and empowerment programme, Mrs Amidat Ilegar Okoh, said 34 people benefited from the empowerment and they were selected from the three senatorial districts in the state, disclosing they were trained in various fields like bag making, sewing and other skills.