The Osun Government on Thursday explained why it could not carry out two previous recruitment exercise of thousands of youth into its Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme popularly called O’YES.
It noted that the recruitment exercise was coming at the right time having painstakingly studied and assessed the social and environmental factors attached to the Scheme.
Responding to questions from journalists shortly after addressing a press conference on Thursday, the State’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Mr. Azeez Olayemi Lawal, disclosed that the recruitment exercise which supposed to continue in 2020 after the termination of the last batch that was recruited in 2018, was prevented by COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the entire world.
The state government explained further that it had already prepared for the recruitment before the pandemic sets in, a situation that posed sharp restrictions to bodily contact and large gathering of people.
Lawal who explained the relentless efforts of the state government to sustain the noble initiative that had become the national social investment programme, said two batches of recruitment were missed due to the adverse effects of the pandemic.
“The last batch of O’YES recruitment was done in 2018 and was supposed to terminate in 2020, but due to the pandemic that ravaged the entire world in 2020, we couldn’t do anything that required gathering of people.
“But as a serious government that is conscious of the safety and general well-being of the citizenry, we quietly looked at the situation throughout 2021 to be sure that things were going to improve, and by the end of 2021 after painstakingly studying the situation, we decided to recruit more.
“To achieve this, the programme was included in the year 2022 budget as clearly stated by Mr Governor while presenting his budget speech before the State Assembly.
“So, recruiting O’YES cadets now is a right step in the right direction because it is coming at a time that every discerning mind could attest to the fact that a gathering of such could be accommodated compare to what we experienced in 2020 and 2021 where the restriction was placed on every social activity and so on. At any rate, it was in this year’s budget that this recruitment will happen,” he added.
