Welfarism, Empowerment Vital In Eradicating Poverty – Eredo LCDA Chairman

By Babatunde Kaka

The chairman of Eredo local council development area, honourable Adeniyi Saliu has stressed the importance of coordinated, comprehensive social intervention and empowerment programmes in addressing the issue of widespread poverty in the country.

Saliu was speaking at this year’s Eredo LCDA empowerment programme.

The annual programme which was targeted at children, youths, farmers, traders and artisans resident in the community took place at the Council Secretariat on Wednesday 23rd December 2020 in line with health guidelines and COVID-19 protocols.

According to the Chairman, the essence of the programme was to cater to the needs of the people while also noting that his administration has no reason to leave anyone behind.

He said the nature of the town being a rural area underscored the need to see to the amelioration of people’s suffering, an ideology that he said was the reason behind the empowerment initiative.

“The kiddies fun fair and empowerment programme today is the 4th year in a row. We are in a rural environment and it is supposing that our people will need empowerment, education and support of any kind they can get. They are basically farmers, fishermen, artisans and a lot of us are educated. So, what we do is to try and incorporate any sector of the society, we don’t want to leave anyone behind. For instance, the people we are empowering today have met different kinds of trade and we thought that it is necessary to support them in terms of equipment. Some needs financial empowerment to support their trade.

” This is the fourth year, before now, if not for COVID, another thing we would have done today is food distribution to the aged and the weak among us. That, we did two weeks ago to support them so that people don’t converge too much in the LCDA premises. We complied with the COVID 19 protocols. That’s what we do yearly and people showed appreciation and you can see that here today. Even the leadership of the party and our Royal fathers have come to support us because they understand that this is more or less a ritual every year to show appreciation to God and to also our people.

Hon. Saliu also noted that the materials were not just distributed to people without the requisite in trading and other entrepreneurial skill. The strategy adopted, he said, was to first send some of the beneficiaries to learn and later empower them when due for freedom or graduation.

” We don’t just give at random. We give people who have learned the trade so that they can value it and that is the difference. We even send some of them to learn those trades because people who know nothing about the trade would sell it off. We allow people to go through the rigours of the trade and after the person is due for freedom or graduation, we empower the person.

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“This empowerment will bring them back to prosperity, it will break the chains of poverty and it will empower them financially. This is deliberate because we understand, they will start doing business on their own and they are going to be different from others who are not empowered. Because we know that there is a gap, we target people every year, every quarter for this kind of empowerment. This is to appreciate and assure our people that the government is with them. We listen to them and we have the commitment to always support them “, he averred.

Materials and equipment handed over to lucky beneficiaries are washing machines, sewing machines, grinding machines, generators, hairdryers and deep freezers. Others got cash grants to support their trade.

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