Following the empowering training of the youths by the Kwara State Government, public infrastructure such as water facilities had been receiving prompt attention as communities and public office holders engaged the services of the Kwara Training, Repair, Empowerment and Community-ownership (KWATRECO) trainees.
Weeks after the training, one of the participants, Amidu Idris from Ile-Apa in Ilorin East Local Government Area, with the support of other youths, fixed two faulty boreholes in the community. Amidu said his community no longer wait for technicians from Ilorin as he and his group had been empowered on borehole repair and maintenance.
Similarly, in a bid to compliment efforts of the Kwara State Government, a member of the Kwara State House Assembly representing Isin Constituency, Honourable AbdulRazaq Omotosho Bellumi had also engaged the KWATRECO’s trainees in fixing nonfunctional boreholes in his constituency.
Honourable Bellumi, who was satisfied with the performance of the trainees, provided the fund for the repair of boreholes in Oke-onigbin and Iwo communities.
Speaking on the intervention, one of the trainees, Adefila Samson said they approached the lawmaker with a proposal to fix faulty boreholes in the area. The request, which according to him, received the lawmaker’s blessing who promptly released money for the execution of the water project.
In his words: “After we had been trained by the Kwara State Government on borehole repair and maintenance through KWATRECO, we felt we should reach out to Honourable Bellumi to assist communities whose boreholes were nonfunctional. He bought into this idea and engaged us to fix boreholes in Oke-onigbin and Iwo communities in Isin Local Government Area.
“I wish to commend Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s led administration for the empowering training which gave us the opportunity to acquire the skill. As a team, we were so happy that we were able to fix those boreholes on our own,” he added.
Also speaking, another participant, Adeyemi Omotoyosi described the training as an ‘eye-opener’, saying that, he had been empowered to seek collaboration with others in fixing public infrastructure in their communities.
According to him, “with the support of our lawmaker, we had successfully demonstrated what we learnt through the KWATRECO project as we also used the tools the government gave to our local government area for the training.”
The trainees therefore called for more support and charged the government to provide more tools for each of the local government areas for them to be more engaged.
