By Tido Lawal
The member representing Igbo Eze South State Constituency at the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon Harrison Ogara, Wednesday, said he has chosen to teach his constituents “how to catch fish instead of giving them fish”.
Ogara made this known during the graduation of about 40 trainees (Igbo Eze South Agro Rangers) in Biopreneurship programmes which he sponsored at the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
He praised the trainees who bagged Certificates of Proficiency in Biopreneurship and urged them to go back to their various homes to practise what they learnt during the three-month intensive training at the university.
He stressed that what politicians did in the past, and still do, is “just giving people handouts which are ephemeral and fleeting instead of using the funds to teach people how to make money on their own”.
He lamented that the political class in Nigeria has failed to encourage the people to go into small and medium scale business even though “it is really captured succinctly in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”.
He said: “The federal government policy of sharing N5000 to poor people in Nigeria seems like a fraud and a programme skewed to allow those who have access to the fund to divert the larger chunk of the funds.
“But here in Enugu State, the government of Dr Peter Mbah is doing everything humanly possible to create an enabling environment for our youths to become financially creative, independent and responsible. Dr Mbah knows that Enugu can only make progress in reduction of poverty in Nigeria by training our people to develop interests in small scale businesses.
“Today, the government has signed into law a bill establishing Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC). He has also set up the team that will drive the commission and by the time we are done, Enugu will create its own electricity grid which will bolster power supply for small scale industries in the state to thrive.”
He tasked the trainees to explore the skills they acquired aimed at making them self-reliant.
Quoting him, “Now that you have been trained in various fields of agricultural programmes, yours is to show practically that our efforts and resources were not wasted.
“You have to show that you are serious by personally challenging yourself and starting small. If you are able to manage the little you have, agencies will develop the interest to assist you in whatever form. As it is, nobody will accept to give you fund when you have not shown capacity to manage the little one you started.”
Hon Ogara praised the efforts of the Dean of Faculty of Biological Sciences, Prof Emeka Nweze, as well as Dr Nelson Ike Ossai who is the programme officer for making out time to thoroughly drill the trainees
The highpoint of the event was the unveiling of the new IGS AGRO RANGERS Cooperative Society.
