GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State has said the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme O’YES is his administration’s response to the previous insensitivity to the plight of teeming youths in the state that had remained unemployed.

Speaking during the activities marking the one year anniversary of the scheme in Ede, Aregbesola accompanied by the Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, lauded the programme as a commendable initiative to take the country out its unemployment difficulties.

He argued that any forward looking government anywhere in the world would invest in the youths for a better society and that the youths were the essential agents for nation building.

According to him, “Investment in the youth is one of the primary duties of any forward-looking government. Youths represent the reality of today and the promise of tomorrow; they are the great agents of change; the essential blocks for nation building.

No amount or efforts should be spared therefore to give them focus and purpose in life. This essential responsibility has been neglected for too long. Hence, O’YES is the response of our administration to the insensitivity of the immediate past government in the state which viewed our youth as nothing more than political thugs and tools for self-aggrandizement.”

Aregbesola explained that the philosophy underlying “the O’YES scheme goes beyond a mere social security service, it is a strategy designed to give hope to the youths; to keep them at work and out of mischief, noting, that, by this, they have hope of a better future rather than the hopelessness of unemployment.

O’YES is part of the fulfillment of his Six-Point Integral Action Plan which, among others, promises to banish poverty, hunger and unemployment, stressing that, it is a socio-economic strategy that helps to engender social stability and develop the economy of the state.