Mr Nonso Nnamani, Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) Candidate for Enugu South Urban Constituency, has promised to create jobs for unemployed youths in his constituency if elected.
Nnamani made the promise during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Sunday.
He pledged to launch an Employment Endowment Fund of N1 million each month during his four years in office to effectively tackle unemployment among youths in his constituency.
Nnamani said that the N1million monthly endowment would be utilised in building skill acquisition centres, equipping graduate apprentices with start-up tools and building clusters of different kinds of cottage businesses.
He said: ‘‘Youth unemployment is our greatest challenge in Enugu metropolis and I intend to use resources available to me to tackle it head-long.
‘‘I will lead my constituents to advocate for soft loans from the CBN, Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, Development Bank of Nigeria as well as micro-finance banks, for young entrepreneurs to either start-up or grow their business and employ more hands.
‘‘My party also plans to collaborate with the state’s Ministry of Education to have skill centres in both primary and secondary schools, where a child must learn a craft.
“We will introduce entrepreneurship education in each secondary school in Enugu metropolis.’’
The ANN candidate also said his party would partner with Primary Healthcare Centres to set up a health insurance for the indigent, who had serious ailments which they could not cope with.
‘‘One of the major manifesto promises of ANN is healthcare.
‘‘With the help of my party, I intend to touch the health of the indigent by rally round the wealthy in my party and constituency to get people that will support my health insurance scheme for the needy,’’ he said.
Nnamani, who is a business consultant in his early thirties, urged young Nigerians to aspire to become political leaders by getting engaged in partisan politics.
‘‘It is not money or connection that is the impediment of youths but lack of self-confidence and ‘can-do-spirit’ to bring out their hidden talents and God-given potential to uplift our society to prosperity,’’ he said.
The ANN candidate, however, complained about the recent destruction of three of his billboards within Enugu; saying that it was the handiwork of mischief-makers and ‘‘do or die political followers.’’
‘‘It is good that each candidate cautions his or her followers or supporters for them to be civil and play according to the rules of the game and be good sportsmen and sportswomen.
“We ought to follow politics and political issues with tolerance,’’ Nnamani said.
