GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State may have proved wrong critics of his administration as he inaugurated 20,000 volunteers in the Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme (OYES) yesterday.

When the government introduced the scheme, opposition party picked holes in the project, describing the exercise as a ploy to train a militia group in readiness for the April general elections.

The impressive graduation ceremony, which drew scores of eminent citizens, formed part of his electioneering campaign to people of Osun State.

Surprisingly however, most of the immediate beneficiaries in the scheme came mainly from the opposition, a development, which caused ripples within the fold of the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria {ACN}.

Addressing participants during the event at the orientation camp of the National Youth Service Corps, Ede, the governor urged staunch members of ACN and their relations who were not able to make the list to see it as a sacrifice, stressing that the OYES scheme is not intended for partisanship.

Aregbesola, who expressed delight at the landmark achievement recorded by his administration, urged beneficiaries to be good ambassadors of the government in the discharge of their responsibilities to the society.

According to him, over 200,000 applied for the scheme but selection was made without recourse to political, religious and ethnic sentiments.

“It is our belief that government is a collective property of the people and therefore nobody should be discriminated in the sharing of its benefits,” Aregbesola said.

-Guardian

Posted by admin on Mar 6 2011. Filed under Osun, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry