In Esan land, there is a big concern to develop our people and the land itself. In the past, many families were able to send their children to school: primary, secondary and tertiary education.
On graduation, they moved to the cities in search of gainful employment. There has been a serious case of rural -urban drift and in recent years, many youths have continued to embark on outward migration to overseas countries in search of a better life.
There are so many other people and youths in Esan land whose families were unable to send them to school and so many have learnt several vocations like artisans, farming and trading while majority do not have saleable skills and so in recent years, many of these have constituted themselves as social miscreants, and are found in the streets, unproductive while others are involved in all sorts of unwholesome activities.
This huge army of Esan youths, unemployed and without practical skills for productive activities have become increasingly worrisome, and yet youths, being able -bodied men and women remain the key catalyst for community development.
Every meaningful Esan man and woman wants real development of our land.
The role of government in the development process is key but has been a very slow process due to ineffective and vision - void leadership and partly due partisanship which has been a major drag for this to happen. But Esan people going forward must unite, regardless of their partisanship, and political learnings including tribal location within Esan land, to genuinely develop our people and the land so every community becomes self-reliant without much dependent upon the government.
It is in the light of this background and the reality of the problem concerning the unemployed youths in Esan land that the initiative focusing on the need to empower the Esan youths was born. This initiative is therefore majorly concerned about the empowerment of youths in the five local government areas of the Edo central senatorial district.
In order to develop Esan land, no one single person can do it alone. Hence all hands must be on deck, traditional rulers, community leaders, politicians, individuals, professional and social associations of Esan land and our sons and daughters in diaspora communities including our good friends as Individuals, all have to be seriously and genuinely involved in developing our people for an envisioned future.
It is in this respect, the visionary zeal of my good self-working jointly with my ever-supportive wife, Lady Winifred that have taken us to set up an NGOs and go ahead to invest socially in building this house “Maria Ebimiagbon Ebhohimen Memorial” because after the demise of her husband with so many wives, my mother decided that her son must receive formal education and made huge sacrifices to ensure indeed the son received education at all levels.
Today, this house is dedicated to her and because of her belief in education as an instrument of personal progress and indeed social development, we have decided to dedicate it to the empowerment of the youths in Esan land.
The Esan youth’s Development Organization (EDO) is one of such NGOs, aimed at providing basic entrepreneurial skills acquisition opportunities and ICT infrastructure, and funding support for the empowerment of Esan youths. Obviously, our youths should have ample access to skills acquisition, funding support, ICT, education, and markets.
It intends to focus on:
[A] Health & Physical Wellbeing for all Esan people
» Finances » Relationships » Social Leadership » Wisdom & Intellect. » Vocation & Mission » Spirituality.In particular, the NGO will focus on:
» Professional sport development particularly in football, tennis, golfing, basketball, etc., taking the Esan youths to the world stage
[B] Funding
[C] Skills acquisition through apprenticeship system and direct training for skill acquisition at the center. We will identify and build strategic partners in respect of apprenticeship system and training.
[D] Mastering learning through e-learning self-study program for secondary school students
[E] Access of youths to ICT
[F] Access of youths to markets for those already in productive jobs.
The huge army of Esan youths, unemployed and without practical skills for productive activities have become increasingly worrisome, and yet youths, being able -bodied men and women remain the key catalyst for community development. Our goal is to empower the Esan youth to be productive and responsible citizen of the society.