As the race for the 2023 presidential election continues to gain momentum, Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State is not thinking about vying for any political or party office, rather, he is adopting revolving strategies and sustainable policies that will curb the rate of poverty among the teeming unemployed youths within and outside Katsina State through entrepreneurial skills and mentorship development.

The governor believes that when youths are well-equipped with essential skills, they can utilize the acquired skills to fend for themselves and others by either being gainfully employed or engaging in entrepreneurship, which results in living a life of dignity, and provides for futuristic investments, thereby aiding the nation to thrive economically.

Masari, who has always been at the forefront in empowering and canvassing supports for youths across Nigeria, is of the view that the fate and future of the youths in the country are tied to the realities of the nation’s political economy and the kind of youths groomed in any society, has a direct link with the opportunities provided to them by the society.

Therefore, “An economically empowered youth is more likely to be patriotic, hard-working and realiable in the drive to achieve sustained development”, and all must put in place revolving strategies or programmes to tackle the spirit of frustration and crime in youths by providing them with sustainable ventures and ideologies that will better their lives.”

One of such revolving strategies adopted by the governor to sustain his empowerment drive and other youth-oriented programmes, especially the physically challenged in the state even when he leave office as the Governor of Katsina State, is the recent inauguration of his personal foundation christened, “Aminu Bello Masari Youth Empowerment Foundation.”

The foundation was inaugurated to ensure that youths acquire new skills and develop already existing skills to sustain a decent means of livelihood, thus, shielding them from the influence of negative vices due to idleness or inability to secure a stable source of livelihood. This is also expected to curb the rate of crime in the state “because most of the youths would be empowered with relevant entrepreneurship skills to avert overdependence on government for jobs.”

With empowerment as the epicenter of the foundation’s programmes, the Aminu Bello Masari Foundation will also create a vast job market, as it provides an avenue for refinement of potentials within the youths in the thematic areas of education, youth empowerment, medical outreach and positive mentorship opportunities.

The foundation, which has it headquarters in Katsina, according to economic coaches, has the capacity to contribute significantly to promoting the role of youths in shaping the future of Nigeria, particularly at this critical moment that the nation is bleeding as a result of nefarious activities orchestrated by bandits, kidnappers and insurgents.

Masari’s intention is to intervene directly in the lives of the people, not only of Katsina State, without prejudice to any partisan belonging, especially in the scheme of affairs that affects youths development. This perhaps, informed his decision to energize the foundation now as he commenced his journey of leaving public office by 2023. Rarely, this will be an ample opportunity for him to give the foundation more time and the desired attention.Accordingly, he is putting machinery in motion to run the foundation without government direct involvement as “not a single kobo belonging to the government” would be used to finance the foundation’s activities. With zero tolerance to money sharing, the foundation is using the existing entrepreneurs to train the new ones as apprentices and assist those with small businesses to develop into a “much bigger business” so that they can have more hands to work with and enhance productivity.

During an interactive session with journalists on the activities of the foundation, Masari, said: “It is a non-partisan foundation and whatever we do won’t be partisan because it is personal. When l finally leave office, I will put arrangement in place that the foundation will be sustainable even after my life.
“Our intention is not to give money to people. No, it’s to train them and put them to work. With the level of the skill, we are planning to give to any person…once you give him that skill, he will use the skill to earn a living. It is high time to start forcing our youths to be more productive and depend on themselves, not depending on government’s patronage or employment.

“As a governor, we have tried empowerment to several strata of youths in this state and we have seen very few of them that put efforts in the businesses they were trained for. Our approach now is using the existing entrepreneurs to train the new ones as apprentices and see how we can help those with small businesses to develop into a much bigger business so that they can have more hands to work with”.
According Masari, the foundation was established when he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives and he tried to distant the foundation from his political activities. He explained that the foundation had rendered numerous humanitarian services to citizens of the state, particularly in the area of scholarship to indigene students, stressing: “We have gone as far as Bauchi, Borno and many other northern and southern states where Katsina state students were. And we have lots of medical outreach, especially around Malumfashi area.”

He added: “We have been doing these quietly but my too much involvement in politics, especially immediately after leaving office as speaker and up to the time l was elected as the Governor of Katsina State, l was too much involved in politics and I slowed the activities of the foundation, because some have already started interpreting it as another political organization or another approach to winning the hearts of the people”.

The governor, who believed that his vision for inaugurating the historic foundation, is part of his humble contribution towards redirecting youths from dependency to formidable people, with hope for better future, noted that the foundation would serve as turning-point for rolling out his dreams and plans for the future of Nigerian youths.

He reiterated the endowment would be used to provide the needed support to youths in the areas of education, youths empowerment, medical outreach and positive mentorship for the youths to realise their full potentials. While urging members of the Board of Trustees (BoT) to remain steadfast and adhere to the objectives of the foundation, Masari said: ”Therefore, with the coming on board of the new Board of Trustees, under the chairmanship of Alhaji Kabir Muhammad Mashi, my vision for a brighter future for our youths has now been mapped out.”

However, Nigeria has one of the world’s largest young populations; and it bears repeating that our country’s youths are the nation’s present and indeed its future; the cost of failing to invest in them is quite unimaginable. Therefore, residents of Katsina State should be excited to be part of the Governor Masari’s ambitious goal of reaching young Nigerians with opportunities instead of accusing him of using government funds to finance the first-ever foundation in the history of the state and the North-west in general.