Senator Bamidele Empowers 27 Physically Challenged in Ekiti

..Says poverty, joblessness cause of killings, kidnappings, insurgency, others

In a bid to widen the frontiers of his empowerment programmes, the Senator representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, Hon Opeyemi Bamidele, has empowered 27 more physically challenged to boost their relevance in economic growth.

This was a follow up to the series of skills acquisition programmes earlier organised by the Senator for his constituents in Ado , Irepodun Ifelodun, Efon, Ijero and Ekiti West Local Governments.

Speaking at the event held in Ado Ekiti on Tuesday, Bamidele, said a total of 250 physically challenged had been trained and empowered by him since 2019, with over 150 of them now self- independent and contributing meaningfully to the growth of local economy.

The Southern Senators Forum Chairman, represented by his Senior Legislative Assistant, Hon Bunmi Oguntuase, said the empowerment programme, being held in partnership with the Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), had trained over 2,500 persons across the Senatorial district.

Bamidele, who is the Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, said he has expended over N250 million to empower various interest and youth groups in the last two year, being his commitment to help Governor Kayode Fayemi banish poverty in the state as contained in the policy thrust of the All Progressives Congress-led government .

The federal lawmaker stated that any society that abandons the physically challenged would not only be offending God, but would be doing a disservice to a people whose qualities and capacities are enormous, reminding that this could be unknown to the populace until they are fully explored.

“We are committed to reducing poverty among the downtrodden masses of Ekiti and that accounted for why we started aggressive empowerments when we got to the Senate.

“By the last count, 2,500 jobless youths , physically challenged and women, had been trained and got financially empowerments to be able to stand on their own.

“With the feedbacks we are getting, over half of them are practising what they have been thought, because we have our feedback mechanism and monitoring groups who are doing that to be able to ascertain the level of progress made.

“Our areas of focus are skills acquisition, empowerments and entrepreneurial trainings in the areas of soap making, confectionaries, fishing, poultry, business proposal preparations, among others.

“The main challenges confronting us as a nation and that are rearing their heads in the multifaceted fashions like insurgency, kidnapping, killer herdsmen, internet fraud and drug peddling is poverty. Everything revolves around joblessness and poverty.

“With what we are experiencing in Nigeria today, no one should preach to all of us that we need hands to be on deck to make our youth profitably engaged, once we can do that , all these criminalities ravaging us will fizzle out and Nigeria will regain its strength as one country where lives and property are safe”.

Speaking on his preference for the physically challenged, Bamidele said those in this category possess enormous capabilities and competences that are being underrated by Nigerians.

“Many of those in this category are underrated people, they are even more mentally endowed than those that are physically fit. They need our patronage, support and motivation and this is exactly what we are doing.

“Inequality has become a global menace. Every nation is now struggling to tackle inequality that exists in our gender, business, and economic empowerments . Leaving behind the physically challenged in the war would create further gaps in the system and this will must avoid for us to create a world that is stable and equaliterian for all citizens”, Bamidele said.