IPOB: The Ebonyi initiative

AS if taking a cue from our recent comment on the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) report on agitation in countries along the Sahel region of the African continent, the Ebonyi State government has commenced the data capturing and registration of its youth population in the 13 local government areas of the state for the purpose of empowerment and self-reliance. The UNDP report had situated the agitations, pockets of discontent and terrorism on the African continent at the doorstep of bad governance rather than adherence to religious convictions. It found that many of the repentant, ex-members of terror groups were in fact ignorant of the tenets of the religion whose cause they claimed to have espoused.

According to the Ebonyi State Commissioner for Economic Empowerment and Job Creation, Uchenna Orji, the initiative would make the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) members to be economically independent and help in reducing social vices and other forms of criminality. There are also plans for indigenes of the state residing in other states. The state government plans to reach them with its empowerment goodies to help them become self-reliant wherever they are domiciled. Certainly, this is a rare display of responsiveness on the part of a state government. Many of the state governments in the country are noted for red tape, and the Ebonyi State government deserves commendation.

But if the Ebonyi State government really wants lasting change, it should bring the steps being taken to a logical conclusion. It should ensure their full, single-minded implementation. It is only when the lofty plans to emancipate the youth population of Ebonyi State are implemented that palpable relief can reach the hitherto restive youths. The youth population must be given close supervision. The government has to monitor the spending of whatever investment is made in each of them so that waste, especially by those who are neophytes in business and investment, can be minimised. The youths must be monitored by experienced coaches and successful entrepreneurs.

Already, according to Orji, the state government is set to create 12,000 jobs. This is a laudable goal. Given the multiplier effects of investing in manufacturing and agriculture, the greater part of the planned investment should be allocated to these sectors for sustainable employment opportunities. It will also be crucial for the initiative to be time-barred. The state government must break the process into steps in order to measure its effects on the people and the economy. This is to avoid failure due to undue procrastination by political actors.

Human failures will have tragic consequences on the youth population of Ebonyi within and outside the state. They would only regroup to direct their youthful energies into negative enterprises, as the UNDP report under reference rightly pointed out. According to the report, most of the disaffections with the society is fuelled by the loss of confidence in the government and its programmes by the youths enlisted in terror groups. Therefore, it is crucial for the Ebonyi State government to make a renewed commitment to the emancipation of the youths in the state. Not only would this dissuade them from treading the path of rebellion, it would properly orientate them on financial empowerment and independence.

The Ebonyi State government must demonstrate that this empowerment programme is not designed to take the youths for a ride. If the experiment succeeds, it will be a point where other affected states can start from, especially in the troubled North-East. Chanelling the energies of the youths into positive endeavours is a national challenge. Having told the people what it has in the offing to dissuade its youths from the criminal bent, the Ebonyi State government cannot afford to fail.