The governor says youths should avoid negative tendencies inimical to their future and national development.

Governor of Bauchi State,BALA MOHAMMED has called on youths to engage in meaningful productive ventures to enable them contribute positively to national development.

Mohammed disclosed this in Bauchi, on Saturday, at a one-day town hall meeting on youth inclusion in governance, organised by the youth committee on engagement and priorities of the Norther Governors’ Forum.

The governor, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Malam Ladan Salihu, advised the youth to eschew violence, indiscipline and other negative tendencies inimical to their future and national development, stressing that peace was the bedrock for human progress and development.

He urged them to also strive to acquire education so as to assume their rightful position in leadership, entrepreneurial endeavour, creativity and productivity for a better Nigeria.

While reiterating that his administration was committed to youth empowerment, he lamented the situation whereby Bauchi state was home to no less than 1.2 million out of school children.

He said efforts were being made to enroll them back at school.

“The government had in the last two years built no fewer than 249 classrooms and renovated 350 schools, which were upgraded to the status of special schools, where computer studies, ICT, and sciences were taught.

“We call on the youth to try to access the available facilities under the federal government social intervention programmes, to enable them achieve self-sustainability and economic independence,” he said.

The governor lamented that the nation was battling with the myriad of social problems, saying that his administration would keep expanding the frontiers of dialogue and consultation on the way forward.

He noted that the youth constituted about 60 per cent of the total population of Nigeria, but were seriously facing deprivation, indolence and unnecessary politicking, which affected them negatively.

Mohammed said the poverty and educational index of the entire Northern states was lamentable, especially considering the ever-widening gap in the critical sectors of the economy and the need for governments to brace up to the reality of things, with a view to making amends.