By Francis Sardauna
The Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, on Thursday inaugurated his personal foundation and donated 200 wheelchairs to persons with physical Disability across the 34 local government areas of the state as part of efforts to assuage their plights.
The foundation christened ‘Aminu Masari Youth Empowerment Foundation’ is expected to create positive opportunities for youths and provide humanitarian services to the less privileged and mentorship for youths to realise their potentials as well as medical outreach to the needy.
Masari, while inaugurating the foundation, said its commissioning makes it a turning point towards rolling out his dreams and plans for the future of the Nigerian youths in order to make them self reliant.
He said: “It is within the framework of opportunities provided by the society and the government that strong and durable youths are brought up. This is my vision for setting up Aminu Masari Youth Empowerment Foundation, as my humble contribution towards redirecting our youths from dependency to productive and formidable people with hope for a better future.
“This endowment will be used to provide the needed support to our youths in areas of education through scholarships, youth empowerment, medical outreach for the less privileged and positive mentorship opportunities for our youths to realise their full potentials.”
The governor explained that the future of youths in Nigeria is tied to the realities of the political economy of the nation, thus, the kind of youths groomed in any society has a direct link with the opportunities provided to them.
According to the governor, an economically powered youth is more likely to be patriotic, hard working and reliable in the drive to achieve sustained development, while economically weak youths are proven to the vices of negative manipulation, opportunism, frustration and crime.
He urged the Foundation’s Board of Trustees (BoT) under the leadership of Kabir Muhammad Mashi, to remain steadfast and adhere strictly to the objectives of the foundation with a view to achieving its four cardinal programmes of education, empowerment, medical outreach and mentorship.
Earlier, the Foundation’s BoT Chairman, Mashi, said members of the board would work in line with the objectives of the foundation to achieve the desired goal.
